Investigating the Social Influence of Different Humanoid Robots

Abstract: The aim with this thesis were to investigate social influence of the two humanoid robots, NAO and Pepper. The research questions were if there were a difference in human social acceptance, in social influence and in influence on human decision making between NAO and Pepper. To answer these questions, an experiment using the Wizard of Oz-method were used with 36 participant, 18 in each group, interacted with NAO or Pepper. Afterwards two questionnaires, NARS and GODSPEED, were answered and an additional interview were held with the participants. The result showed a significant difference on GODSPEED, where NAO indicates to have a higher amount of social influence on the participants then Pepper. The result for NARS were not significant. The result from the decisions made during the experiment indicated that humans follow NAO more than Pepper, a result that got more explained and understandable during the interviews.   For future studies there would be interesting to test the scenario with a larger selection and also with a more natural Wizard of Oz-design.