Trust and Prior Experience in Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract

This experiment explored the influence of users’ experience (prior interaction) with robots on their attitudes and trust toward robotic agents. Specifically, we hypothesized that prior experience would lead to 1) higher trust scores after viewing a robot complete a task, 2) smaller differences in trust scores when comparing a human and a robot completing the same task, and 3) more positive general attitudes towards robots. These hypotheses were supported although not all results achieved significant levels of differentiation. These findings confirm that prior experience plays an important role in both user trust and general attitude in human-robot interactions.