Preschoolers were asked whether they would rather learn from a competent robot or an incompetent human. The study found that five-year-olds preferred learning from a competent robot over a human, while three-year-olds had no preference. To see if the morphology of the robot affected the children’s trust strategies, the researchers used two different robots, one with humanoid characteristics and one with a truck shape. The results were similar, indicating that the appearance of the robot has no effect on children’s selective trust. The research expands on prior findings that children attribute certain human-like characteristics to robots.
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Hsin-Yu Huang
UConn KIDS Research Assistant