“When you enter he nods already”: twofold displays of sensemaking in registering a robot’s nonverbal behavior

This study investigates the way participants display their sensemaking of a humanoid robot’s nonverbal behavior (NVB) by verbally registering it. Using a conversation analytic approach, we examine video recordings where a more experienced participant provides instructions to an unexperienced participant in the presence of the already activated robot. We find human-resembling NVBs (e.g. nods, gaze) are prioritized and only registered as deviating from human social norms, whereas robot-specific NVBs (bleeps, eye lights) are registered without displaying expectations regarding its meaning. Although human social norms are treated as relevant for human-resembling NVB, the robot is never treated as a fully competent conversational partner, even when participants address the robot directly about its behavior. Participants thus display a twofold approach to the robot: They do not treat the robot as (fully) capable of adhering to human social norms yet still rely on these norms to publicly make sense of its human-resembling behavior.