Gender is increasingly being explored as a social characteristic ascribed to robots by people. Yet, research involving social robots that may be gendered tends not to address gender perceptions, such as through pilot studies or manipulation checks. Moreover, research that does address gender perceptions has been limited by a reliance on the human gender binary model of feminine and masculine, prescriptive response options, and/or researcher assumptions and/or ascriptions of participant gendering. In response, we conducted an online pilot categorization study (n=55) wherein we provided gender-expansive response options for rating four robots ranging across four levels of anthropomorphism. Findings indicate that people gender robots in diverse ways, and not necessarily in relation to the gender binary. Additionally, less anthropomorphic robots and the childlike humanoid robot were deemed masculine, while the iconic robot was deemed gender neutral, fluid, and/or ambiguous. We discuss implications for future work on all humanoid robots.
翻译:然而,涉及社会机器人而可能具有性别特征的研究往往不会解决性别观念问题,例如通过试点研究或操纵检查;此外,确实涉及性别观念的研究也受到限制,因为依赖于女性和男性的人类性别二元模型、规范反应选项和(或)研究人员的假设和(或)参与者性别特征;作为回应,我们开展了在线试点分类研究(n=55),我们为四级人类形态四级的四级机器人评级提供了性别灭绝反应选项;调查结果表明,人们的性别机器人以不同方式存在,不一定与性别二元有关;此外,较少的人类形态机器人和类儿童类机器人被视为阳性,而标志性机器人被视为性别中立、流动和(或)模糊。我们讨论了对所有人类机器人的未来工作的影响。