"Don't Judge a Book by its Cover": Exploring Discriminatory Behavior in Multi-User-Robot Interaction

With multi-user scenarios in human-robot interaction the problem of predisposed and unfair robot treatments due to biases arises. Thus, this study explores whether individuals recognize discrimination by a social robot and the impact of the feeling of exclusion. As a social consequence, the influence of robot discrimination on the perception of interaction partners and the attribution of blame is focused. Employing a VR-based multi-user lab experiment simulating a library task, participants experienced discrimination by a robot. Results suggest that discriminated individuals felt more discriminated against, albeit not significantly more ostracized. Moreover, discrimination influenced the self-attribution of blame and observers' evaluations of the discriminated user's competence. This work highlights the complex social impact of robot discrimination on human interactions and team dynamics.