Mind Perception of a Sociable Humanoid Robot: A Comparison Between Elderly and Young Adults

Sociable robots are slowly entering domains such as education and healthcare. As we are exposing our youth and elderly to these new intelligent technologies, it is important to understand their perception and attitudes towards robots. This study investigates the differences between elderly and young adults in ascribing mind perception to a sociable humanoid robot. Both subjective and behavioral measurements were employed to investigate the differences. Several trends were found; elderlies attributed higher scores of mind perception to the robot, whereas young adults seemed to have a more positive attitude towards it. Elderlies seemed to apply human social models of interaction, whereas young adults perceived a master-slave relationship between humans and the robot. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between mind perception and attitude toward the robot for both groups.