A Humanoid Robot Morphology Does Not Always Lead To A Higher Perception Of Anthropomorphism And Trust
Trust is an important aspect that influences the outcome of human-robot collaborations. Robots with a humanoid morphology might influence perceptions of trust. In this paper, we provide a comparison of two robots, one with a humanoid and one with a technical morphology, performing a collaborative task. In addition to investigating the influence of robot morphology on anthropomorphism and trust, we examined the use of verbal assurances in both robots. For this, we conducted a 2x3 study with 60 participants. Our analysis shows that the perception of anthropomorphism did have a positive and reliable effect on trust, while robot morphology and forecast did not impact trust reliably. We discuss the implications of these findings. In particular, we hypothesize that certain humanoid features may make others redundant, or that perception of anthropomorphism might depend on upholding what we may call an “anthropomorphic illusion”.