Effects of Voice and Lighting Color on the Social Perception of Home Healthcare Robots

Abstract

The influence of matching between robots’ social cues on users’ social perceptions should be investigated systematically to better fit robots to their occupational roles. In this study, an experiment with 69 older and middle-aged participants was conducted to explore the effects of the voice and lighting color of a home healthcare robot on users’ social perception, which was measured by the Robotic Social Attributes Scale (RoSAS). The results indicated that voice and lighting color significantly affected social perceptions of the healthcare robot. Specifically, the adopted robot received high warmth ratings when it had an adult female voice or a child voice, whereas it received high competence ratings when it had an adult male voice. The robot received a high warmth rating and a high competence rating when warm and cool lighting were used, respectively, as visual feedback. Furthermore, a mismatch in the robot’s voice and lighting color was discovered to evoke feelings of discomfort. The findings of this study can be used as a reference to design robots with acceptable social perception and to expand the roles of social robots in the future.