Anthropomorphization of Robots – A Result of Robot Design or a Result of the Human Tendency to Anthropomorphize?

Anthropomorphism and trust are two variables that are measured in a multitude of HRI studies. These two variables are often treated as dependent variables influenced by a particular robot design or behavior. However, psychological literature suggests that people have individual tendencies to anthropomorphize, influencing these two variables. We ran an experiment in which 70 participants were confronted with two robots, a humanoid and a non-humanoid robot. Before exposing them to the robots, they were screened for their individual tendency to anthropomorphize. After exposure, they rated the robots in terms of anthropomorphism and trust. With this experiment, we show that the individual tendency to anthropomorphize has a clear impact on measuring anthropomorphism and trust with frequently used questionnaires. Given our results, we emphasize that future studies should screen participants for their tendency to anthropomorphize to avoid unwanted biases.