Exploring the Influence of Co-Present and Remote Robots on Persuasiveness and Perception of Politeness

Sahba Zojaji, Andrii Matviienko, Christopher E. Peters

Abstract: Politeness is a crucial aspect of human social interactions. While the influence of politeness is well understood in human groups, it remains underexplored in group interactions with robots. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct an initial exploration into the influence of the presence of humanoid robots on their persuasiveness and perceived politeness in small groups. We conducted a user study (N = 119) with co-present and remote robots that invited participants to join the group using six politeness behaviors derived from Brown and Levinson's politeness theory. It requests participants to join them at the furthest side of the group, even though a closer side is also available to them, but would ignore the robot's request. The results show that co-present robots are perceived to be less persuasive than remote ones. However, co-presence enhances the clarity of the robot's requests and the perceived freedom of action while decreasing the perceived friendliness and offensiveness.