Experiments have shown that we perceive the "body" of an anthropomorphic robot as human, and requests to touch its "taboo" parts evoke a strong emotional response.
Evolution did not prepare us in any way to interact with robots, and we simply transfer to them the attitudes and reactions developed for completely different circumstances and interlocutors. Psychologists have repeatedly shown to what extent this confusion reaches: our subconscious mind spends significant efforts trying to read emotions on the "face" of an anthropomorphic robot, and the same brain areas work to recognize them as when recognizing other people. As recent experiments by psychologists at Stanford University have shown, we also easily "confuse" the iron body of a robot with the body of a living person.
Ten volunteers were asked to interact with a small anthropomorphic NAO robot from Aldebaran Robotic. The robot was programmed to speak phrases, asking people to touch different parts of their body. At the same time, small electrodes tracked the electrical conductivity of the subjects' skin, which is a recognized indicator of a person's emotional state and makes it easy to notice hidden reactions.
Scientists have shown that touching "normal" parts of the robot's body - legs, head - does not cause a strong emotional response. However, when the robot asked to touch the area of its "genitals" or "buttocks", the reaction was vivid, and even the video showed that such a movement took a little longer than touching its legs or arms. In this case, the chest and eyes can also be attributed to the "taboo" areas according to the measurement results.
The authors plan to present the results of the work at the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Communications, which will soon be held in Japan and will bring together not only scientists, but also developers and manufacturers of robotics. In their opinion, when thinking over the interactions between people and robots, it is imperative to take into account our "human" attitude towards them.