The Frankenstein syndrome questionnaire: : Results from a quantitative cross-cultural survey

Dag Sverre Syrdal, Tatsuya Nomura, and Kerstin Dautenhahn, 'The Frankenstein Syndrome Questionnaire – Results from a Quantitative Cross-Cultural Survey', In: Herrmann G., Pearson M.J., Lenz A., Bremner P., Spiers A., Leonards U. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8239. Springer, Cham. Paper presented at the International Conference on Social Robotics, (ICSR) 2013, Bristol, UK, 27-29 October 2013. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013This paper describes the results from a cross-cultural survey of attitudes towards humanoid robots conducted in Japan and with a Western sampe. The survey used the tentatively titled "Frankenstein Syndrome Questionnaire" and combined responses both from a Japanese and Western sample in order to explore common, cross-cultural factor structures in these responses. In addition, the differences between samples in terms of relationships between factors as well as other intra-sample relationships were examined. Findings suggest that the Western sample's interfactor relationships were more structured than the Japanese sample, and that intra-sample characteristics such as age and gender were more prevalent in the Western sample than the Japanese sample. The results are discussed in relation to the notion of the Frankenstein Syndrome advanced by Kaplan [1]

Differences on social acceptance of humanoid robots between Japan and the UK

Held at AISB'15 ConventionTo validate a questionnaire for measuring people's acceptance of humanoid robots in cross-cultural research (the Frankenstein Syndrome Questionnaire: FSQ), an online survey was conducted in both the UK and Japan including items on perceptions of the relation to the family and commitment to religions, and negative attitudes toward robots (the NARS). The results suggested that 1) the correlations between the FSQ subscale scores and NARS were sufficient, 2) the UK people felt more negative toward humanoid robots than did the Japanese people, 3) young UK people had more expectation for humanoid robots, 4) relationships between social acceptance of humanoid robots and negative attitudes toward robots in general were different between the nations and generations, and 5) there were no correlations between the FSQ subscale scores, and perception of the relation to the family and commitment to religions.Final Accepted Versio

General Attitudes Towards Robots Scale (GAToRS): A New Instrument for Social Surveys

Psychometric scales are useful tools in understanding people's attitudes towards different aspects of life. As societies develop and new technologies arise, new validated scales are needed. Robots and artificial intelligences of various kinds are about to occupy just about every niche in human society. Several tools to measure fears and anxieties about robots do exist, but there is a definite lack of tools to measure hopes and expectations for these new technologies. Here, we create and validate a novel multi-dimensional scale which measures people's attitudes towards robots, giving equal weight to positive and negative attitudes. Our scale differentiates (a) comfort and enjoyment around robots, (b) unease and anxiety around robots, (c) rational hopes about robots in general (at societal level) and (d) rational worries about robots in general (at societal level). The scale was developed by extracting items from previous scales, crowdsourcing new items, testing through 3 scale iterations by exploratory factor analysis (Ns 135, 801 and 609) and validated in its final form of the scale by confirmatory factor analysis (N: 477). We hope our scale will be a useful instrument for social scientists who wish to study human-technology relations with a validated scale in efficient and generalizable ways.Peer reviewe

ERP markers of action planning and outcome monitoring in human – robot interaction

The present study aimed to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) of action planning and outcome monitoring in human-robot interaction. To this end, participants were instructed to perform costly actions (i.e. losing points) to stop a balloon from inflating and to prevent its explosion. They performed the task alone (individual condition) or with a robot (joint condition). Similar to findings from human-human interactions, results showed that action planning was affected by the presence of another agent, robot in this case. Specifically, the early readiness potential (eRP) amplitude was larger in the joint, than in the individual, condition. The presence of the robot affected also outcome perception and monitoring. Our results showed that the P1/N1 complex was suppressed in the joint, compared to the individual condition when the worst outcome was expected, suggesting that the presence of the robot affects attention allocation to negative outcomes of one's own actions. Similarly, results also showed that larger losses elicited smaller feedback-related negativity (FRN) in the joint than in the individual condition. Taken together, our results indicate that the social presence of a robot may influence the way we plan our actions and also the way we monitor their consequences. Implications of the study for the human-robot interaction field are discussed

Great Expectations? Relation of Previous Experiences With Social Robots in Real Life or in the Media and Expectancies Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment

Social robots, which mostly look and behave like humans, are often perceived as somehow alive and treated similar to humans, despite the fact that they are non-living electronic devices. Based on considerations of the uncertainty reduction theory, the question arises what expectancies regarding social robots people have and what sources they use to achieve these expectancies. To receive an in-depth understanding of people’s expectancies regarding social robots and particularly how these expectancies are influenced by people’s experiences with real robots but also with fictional robots from media, thirteen semi-structured interviews and a quantitative online study (n = 433) were conducted. Results indicate that people’s experiences with robots in the media lead to high expectations regarding the skills of robots, which in turn increase people’s general expectancies regarding social robots being part of the society as well as their personal lives. Furthermore, knowledge of negatively perceived fictional robots increases negative expectancies of robots becoming a threat to humans, while technical affinity reduces general robot anxiety

Exploring Factors Affecting User Trust Across Different Human-Robot Interaction Settings and Cultures

Trust is one of the necessary factors for building a successful human-robot interaction (HRI). This paper investigated how human trust in robots differs across HRI scenarios in two cultures. We conducted two studies in two countries: Saudi Arabia (study 1) and the United Kingdom (study 2). Each study presented three HRI scenarios: a dog robot guiding people with sight impairments, a teleoperated robot in healthcare, and a manufacturing robot. Study 1 shows that participants' trust perception score (TPS) was significantly different across the three scenarios. However, Study 2 results show a slightly significant variation in TPS across the scenarios. We also found that the relevance of trust for a given task is an indicator of a participant's trust. Furthermore, the findings showed that trust scores or factors affecting users' trust vary across cultures. The findings identified novel factors that might affect human trust, such as controllability, usability and risk. The findings direct the HRI community to consider a dynamic and evolving design for modelling human-robot trust because factors affecting humans' trust are evolving and will vary across different settings and cultures

Honors Research Symposium Program Spring 2015

University Honors Symposium Program for 201

2011 Abstract Booklet

Complete Schedule of Events for the 13th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The Study Of Ethical Leadership: Emerging Issues

Recent high profile corporate scandals have sparked considerable discussion about the need for increased research into business ethics.  This paper reviews the extant literature on ethical leadership, and makes recommendations for future research

Insight into Animal Cloning and the Food Chain: a Qualitative Examination of Key Opinion Leaders and a Cross Section of the Irish Public.

The ability to clone elite breeding animals, aimed at addressing the needs of modern food production, had been earmarked as a possibility for the agricultural sector since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996. A ruling by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States in 2008 that permits under-license, the commercial cloning of agricultural animals has seen this possibility realised. No such ruling exists here in Europe, but the FDA policy not to label cloned-derived products, and a history of wariness to food biotechnology in Europe may expedite this debate. With the plethora of issues that cloning of animals presents (animal welfare, religious issues, trade issues etc.), the policy debate in Europe looks set to incorporate ethical, legal and social issues from a complex set of state and civil stakeholders. Against the backdrop of ambitious targets for the Irish beef and dairy sectors and with biotechnology identified as a driver of growth, this study is an attempt to generate insight in an Irish context. The aim of this research is to canvass the views of Irish key opinion leaders with respect to the use of animal cloning for food production purposes, as well as those of the Irish public. Specifically, this research aims to gauge the current levels of awareness among specific groups and examine their likely acceptance. In accomplishing the research aim, the development of the methodology took a qualitative approach. A series of in-depth interviews was carried out with Irish key opinion leaders (n=19) spanning regulatory organisations, scientific institutions, consumer interest groups, industry representatives, retail and other non-government organisations. The methodological challenge of engaging with the public on a complex technology was overcome with a novel methodology called Food-Bio QUIS (Food-Biotechnology Qualitative InsightS). Food-Bio QUIS uses established methodology from the area of citizen engagement to develop dialogue and established methodology from qualitative research (specifically focus groups) in the selection of individuals and in analysis of the data. In total 6 Food-Bio QUIS groups were carried out with a cross section of the Irish public (n=35). The results indicate that formal discussion on the use and implications of animal cloning in food production had not occurred within key opinion leader organisations. While receptivity to agri-food cloning varied among interviewees, the near-term prospects for this technology were largely viewed with scepticism. Among the Irish public, key findings on the receptivity to cloning included animal welfare aspects, varying interpretations on modern agriculture and the influence of science-fiction on the receptivity to new technologie