Persuasiveness of social robot ‘Nao’ based on gaze and proximity

Social Robots have widely infiltrated the retail and public space. Mainly, social robots are being utilized across a wide range of scenarios to influence decision making, disseminate information, and act as a signage mechanism, under the umbrella of Persuasive Robots or Persuasive Technology. While there have been several studies in the afore-mentioned area, the effect of non-verbal behaviour on persuasive abilities is generally unexplored. Therefore, in this research, we report whether two key non-verbal attributes, namely proximity and gaze, can elicit persuasively, compliance, and specific personality appeals. For this, we conducted a 2 (eye gaze) x 2 (proximity) between-subjects experiment where participants viewed a video-based scenario of the Nao robot. Our initial results did not reveal any significant results based on the non-verbal attributes. However, perceived compliance and persuasion were significantly correlated with knowledge, responsiveness, and trustworthiness. In conclusion, we discuss how the design of a robot could make it more convincing as extensive marketing and brand promotion companies could use robots to enhance their advertisement operations