British Children's and Adults' Perceptions of Robots

Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems are quickly becoming a familiar part of different aspects of everyday life. We know very little about how children and adults perceive the abilities of different robots and whether these ascriptions are associated with a willingness to interact with a robot. In the current study, we asked British children aged 4-13 years and British adults to complete an online experiment. Participants were asked to describe what a robot looks like, give their preference for various types of robots (a social robot, a machine-like robot, and a human-like robot), and answer whether they were willing to engage in different activities with the different robots. Results showed that younger children (4 to 8 years old) are more willing to engage with robots compared to older children (9 to 13 years) and adults. Specifically, younger children were more likely to see robots as kind compared to older children and adults. Younger children were also more likely to rate the social robot as helpful compared to older children and adults. This is also the first study to examine preferences for robots engaging in religious activities, and results show that British adults prefer humans over robots to pray for them but such biases may not be generally applicable to children. These results provide new insight into how children and adults in the United Kingdom accept the presence and function of robots.