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What Happens When Robots Punish? Evaluating Human Task Performance During Robot-Initiated Punishment

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Alan R. WagnerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), Volume 10, Issue 4

Article No.: 38, Pages 1 - 18

https://doi.org/10.1145/3472207

Published: 02 September 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

This article examines how people respond to robot-administered verbal and physical punishments. Human participants were tasked with sorting colored chips under time pressure and were punished by a robot when they made mistakes, such as inaccurate sorting or sorting too slowly. Participants were either punished verbally by being told to stop sorting for a fixed time, or physically, by restraining their ability to sort with an in-house crafted robotic exoskeleton. Either a human experimenter or the robot exoskeleton administered punishments, with participant task performance and subjective perceptions of their interaction with the robot recorded. The results indicate that participants made more mistakes on the task when under the threat of robot-administered punishment. Participants also tended to comply with robot-administered punishments at a lesser rate than human-administered punishments, which suggests that humans may not afford a robot the social authority to administer punishments. This study also contributes to our understanding of compliance with a robot and whether people accept a robot’s authority to punish. The results may influence the design of robots placed in authoritative roles and promote discussion of the ethical ramifications of robot-administered punishment.

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Cited By

Edirisinghe SSatake SLiu YKanda T(2024)Field Trial of a Queue-Managing Security Guard RobotACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/368029213:4(1-48)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3680292
Hou YCheon EJung MGrollman DBroadbent EJu WSoh HWilliams T(2024)Power in Human-Robot InteractionProceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3610977.3634949(269-282)Online publication date: 11-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610977.3634949
Chen NCao JHu X(2024)The Effects of Robot Managers’ Reward-Punishment Behaviours on Human–Robot Trust and Job PerformanceInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01091-016:3(529-545)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01091-0
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

What Happens When Robots Punish? Evaluating Human Task Performance During Robot-Initiated Punishment
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Embedded and cyber-physical systems
    1. Robotics
2. Human-centered computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction

ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction Volume 10, Issue 4

December 2021

282 pages

EISSN:2573-9522

DOI:10.1145/3476005

Editors:
Odest Chadwicke Jenkins
University of Michigan, USA
,
Selma Sabanovic
Indiana University, USA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2021 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 02 September 2021

Accepted: 01 May 2021

Received: 01 September 2020

Revised: 01 January 2020

Published in THRI Volume 10, Issue 4

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3680292
Hou YCheon EJung MGrollman DBroadbent EJu WSoh HWilliams T(2024)Power in Human-Robot InteractionProceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3610977.3634949(269-282)Online publication date: 11-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610977.3634949
Chen NCao JHu X(2024)The Effects of Robot Managers’ Reward-Punishment Behaviours on Human–Robot Trust and Job PerformanceInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01091-016:3(529-545)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01091-0
Edirisinghe SSatake SKanda T(2023)Field Trial of a Shopworker Robot with Friendly Guidance and Appropriate AdmonishmentsACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/357580512:3(1-37)Online publication date: 24-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3575805
Naito MRea DKanda T(2023)Hey Robot, Tell It to Me Straight: How Different Service Strategies Affect Human and Robot Service OutcomesInternational Journal of Social Robotics10.1007/s12369-023-01013-015:6(969-982)Online publication date: 17-May-2023
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Ahmad MRefik R(2022)“No Chit Chat!” A Warning From a Physical Versus Virtual Robot Invigilator: Which Matters Most?Frontiers in Robotics and AI10.3389/frobt.2022.9080139Online publication date: 22-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.908013
Hirsch LHild FObaid M(2022)Design Recommendations for Historical Cemeteries Using Speculative DesignProceedings of the 25th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/3569219.3569378(147-157)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2022
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Surendran VWagner A(2022)That was not what I was aiming at! Differentiating human intent and outcome in a physically dynamic throwing taskAutonomous Robots10.1007/s10514-022-10074-547:2(249-265)Online publication date: 3-Dec-2022
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