More than you expect: priors influence the adoption of intentional stance toward humanoid robots

Expectations about other’s behavior based on mental states modulate the way we interact with people. On the brink of the introduction of robots in our social environment, the question of whether humans would use the same strategy when interacting with artificial agents gain relevance. Recent research shows that people can adopt the mentalistic statement to explain the behavior of humanoid robots [1]. Adopting such a strategy might be mediated by the expectations that people have about robots and technology, among others. The present study aims to create a questionnaire to evaluate such expectations and to test whether these priors in fact modulate the adoption of the intentional stance. We found that people’s expectations directed to a particular robot platform have an influence on the adoption of mental state based explanations regarding an artificial agent. Lower expectations were associated with anxiety during interaction with robots and neuroticism. Meanwhile, high expectations are linked to feeling less discomfort when interacting with robots and a higher degree of openness. Our findings suggest that platform-directed expectations might also play a crucial role in HRI and in the adoption of intentional stance toward artificial agents.