Investigating Behavioral and Cognitive Changes Induced by Autonomous Delivery Robots in Incidentally Copresent Persons

Abstract

Autonomous delivery robots (ADRs) encounter incidentally copresent persons (InCoPs) during their delivery journeys. Despite the potential for ADRs' behavior to influence the behavior and cognition of InCoPs, there is limited research on the interaction between ADRs and InCoPs. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a within-participants experiment (N=30) with a 3 (confederate types: humans vs. high anthropomorphism robots vs. low anthropomorphism robots) x 2 (jaywalking status: jaywalking vs. not jaywalking) design to investigate the impact of ADRs on InCoPs’ behavioral and cognitive changes induced by the social influence of ADRs. During the experiment, participants watched a video depicting interactions between ADRs and InCoPs at a crosswalk. Each participant was immersed in the video as an InCoP, instructed to make jaywalking decisions, and subsequently completed questionnaires. Results indicated that, behaviorally, participants displayed similar levels of conformity towards jaywalking behaviors across both the human and robot confederates. Cognitively, there were significant differences in morality based on the confederate types. Additionally, robots that refrained from jaywalking received more positive ratings in terms of morality and intention to use. This study confirms that ADRs have the capacity to induce conformity similar to humans and that the ethical behavior of ADRs can positively influence InCoPs' impressions and intention to use toward ADRs.