What you do is who you are: The role of task context in perceived social robot personality

People tend to unconsciously attribute personality traits to all kinds of technology including robots. But what personality do they want robots to have? Previous research has found support for two contradicting theories: similarity attraction and complementary attraction. The similarity attraction theory implies that people prefer a robot with a similar personality to their own (e.g., an extroverted person prefers an extroverted robot). According to the complementary attraction theory, people prefer a robot’s personality opposite to their own (e.g., extroverted people prefer an introverted robot). In contrast to both theories, we argue that what is considered an appropriate personality for a robot depends on the task context. In a 2x2 between-groups experiment (N=45), we found trends that indicated similarity attraction for extrovert participants when the robot was a tour guide and complementary attraction for introverted participants when the robot was a cleaner. These trends show that preferences for robot personalities may indeed depend on the context of the robot's role and the stereotype perceptions people hold for certain jobs. Robot behaviors likely need to be adapted not in complimentary or similarity to the users’ personality but to the users' expectations about what kind of personality and behaviors are consistent with such a task or role.