Kids more likely to trust robots than humans, reveals study

An intriguing yet scary study has revealed that children are more likely to trust robots and machines than humans. The research, published in Computers in Human Behavior, revealed that children were more accepting and empathetic when robots made mistakes.

The study involved 111 kids aged between three and six.

Researchers wanted to know what sources are children more likely to prefer and trust as they come across huge amounts of data on a daily basis both in the offline and online world.

"The question then becomes, how do children choose who to learn from when faced with conflicting testimonies?" the researchers wrote in their published paper.

How was the study conducted?

The kids were divided into many groups and they were shown movies of humans and robots labelling both new and familiar objects.

The reliability of humans and robots was tested by incorrectly labelling common objects—such as calling a plate a spoon. This was done by researchers to assess the children's perception of who to trust more.

Results

The children were keener to ask robots to label the new items and accept their labelling as accurate. Interestingly, they were more likely to share their secrets with robots rather than humans.

"Children's conceptualizations of the agents making a mistake also differed, such that an unreliable human was selected as doing things on purpose, but not an unreliable robot," write the researchers.

"These findings suggest that children's perceptions of a robot's reliability are separate from their evaluation of its desirability as a social interaction partner and its perceived agency," they further wrote.

Slight differences in responses of kids from different age groups were also noted. For instance, older kids were more likely to trust robots than younger ones. "What it is about the robot, exactly, which makes it preferable, remains an open question," the researchers wondered.

(With inputs from agencies)