Perceived human-robot relational structures: a pictogram-based questionnaire to assess ideal and assumed relationships

Evaluations in human-robot interaction (HRI) have traditionally focused on surface-level impressions such as likability and anthropomorphism, often neglecting the underlying relational structures that define mutual contributions and shared goals. Understanding these relational dynamics is crucial for fostering effective and sustainable human-robot collaborations. Here, we developed and validated a novel pictogram-based questionnaire grounded in social psychology to capture relational structures, conducting three scenario-based online surveys. We examined ideal and assumed relational structures in human-human and human-robot contexts across varying robot appearances, roles, and utterances. We distinguish between ideal relational structures (what users would like to establish; Surveys A and B) and assumed (expected) relational structures (what users believe would emerge under the described conditions; Survey C). Our results reveal that ideal relational structures vary by human relationship type, and that a robot's communicative behavior significantly influences perceived relational structures, often more than physical appearance. These findings suggest that assessing relational perceptions can inform the design of robots better aligned with user expectations, enhancing long-term engagement and collaboration in HRI.