Researchers find folks prefer robots that engage in small talk

While it doesn't exactly come as much of a surprise, a team of researchers from ATR Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan have found that people are more accepting of robots if they engage in a little small talk during conversations, as opposed to leaving unnerving silences that make folks unclear of their intentions. The researchers also found that of the 38 people surveyed, most were willing to accept delays in responses of one or two seconds, but that they much preferred if the robot threw in a "well" or "er" to fill the gap if it was taking any longer for them to muster up an answer. Of course, as we all know, just because a robot shoots the breeze with you doesn't mean it's your friend, so you may want to be careful what you wish for.

[alexmueller @ Mar 20th 2008 3:55PM]

er...

[Fernando @ Mar 20th 2008 4:13PM]

well...

[Tim @ Mar 20th 2008 4:15PM]

uum...

[Blackstar @ Mar 20th 2008 5:48PM]

Klaatu Verada Nicto! ...so, how about that game last night?

[Neebs @ Mar 20th 2008 3:59PM]

Personally, I think if a robot asked me how the weather is I'd be pretty scared.

[Chuckles McGee @ Mar 20th 2008 4:26PM]

I'd be pretty scared if it started making detailed inquiries about the various vulnerabilities of the human body for "informative purposes".

[ReggieXuk @ Mar 20th 2008 3:59PM]

101!!!

[Joe @ Mar 20th 2008 3:59PM]

Very nice HAL 3000 reference thrown in there.

Thank you.

[Philippe @ Mar 20th 2008 4:05PM]

Say what? http://www.reelclassics.com/Audio_Video/Quotes7r/2001_disconnect.wav

[erik @ Mar 20th 2008 4:09PM]

Since when have we had robots amongst us?

[PhilxBefore @ Mar 20th 2008 7:26PM]

Short answer?

May 12th, 1984..

"3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. The computer which controlled the machines, Skynet, sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the human resistance, John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was set to strike at John himself when he was still a child. As before, the resistance was able to send a lone warrior, a protector for John. It was just a question of which one of them would reach him first. "

[mercuryinabottle @ Mar 20th 2008 4:14PM]

"The researchers also found that of the 38 people surveyed..."

38 people...nice population. Should be totally applicable across the board!

[SimonHL @ Mar 20th 2008 7:23PM]

Don't take the number of people surveyed as a sign of the quality of the research. If you want to figure out how people react emotionally to robots, it would be pretty a bad idea to mail a paper questionnaire to 5000 people. You would want to observe them and talk to them.

[Tim @ Mar 20th 2008 4:14PM]

It would be useless talking to that robot the only thing it says is "Please talk to me in Japanese"

In English...

[Richard @ Mar 20th 2008 4:26PM]

Just as long as the robot skips the small talk before sex.

[Hax Or @ Mar 20th 2008 4:28PM]

I like when my robots stutter and spray when they talk. You will get wet with my robots.

I can do without lispy, but... if it looks like Cherry 2000, I'll forgive it. And buy it presents.

[fanman @ Mar 20th 2008 4:30PM]

Welcome robot overlords... yeah we know.

[JRM @ Mar 20th 2008 4:33PM]

Wow. If a robot can do small talk, then, inevitably, there will someone who'll say "Domo arigato Mr. Robotto".

[GenericAnimeBoy @ Mar 20th 2008 4:52PM]

Can't the robot just give a nice monotone "**WORKING**" followed by clicking relays like the Star Trek: TOS computer did? That's what I would want it to do.

[PhilxBefore @ Mar 20th 2008 7:29PM]

Please. Get back in your virgin-mobile and drive far, far away.

[Whiplash @ Mar 20th 2008 5:15PM]

I don't know that I'd feel too comfortable have a robot that was strong enough to kill me, sit there and "um, er" his way through an answer. You going to dress him in overalls and make him chew straw as well?

No, I say make him cock his head and stare into space like Data did in TNG. At least then he LOOKS like he's thinking hard.

[For2itous @ Mar 20th 2008 5:43PM]

Lamentably, extrapolating from this survey, I'm going to have to seriously reconsider my dream of titillating a whole new generation via the clever reintroduction of that mid-Seventies phenomenon, "Pet Rock©."

[rikki @ Mar 20th 2008 5:47PM]

According to my old Japanese teacher, it's basic Japanese etiquette to throw in "useless" words like that in a conversation. Staying completely silent for too long is considered a little discomfiting at best and rude at worst (implies you aren't interested in talking to or weren't listening to the speaker)

...Obviously I'm no expert on the matter (I don't even remember if that's exactly what she said) but that whole "completely different culture" thing might better explain the results of that survey.

[Jeff @ Mar 20th 2008 6:53PM]

This research has already been done with computer agents and all kinds of other systems. I don't know why robotics feels the need to redo everything already done in HCI, and people report on it like its really surprising.

[i love robot @ Mar 21st 2008 12:59AM]

Talking about robots, you should see this http://www.asterpix.com/console/?avi=8581711
Quite amazing!