As robots begin to occupy our social spaces, touch will increasingly become part of human–robot interactions. This paper examines the impact of observing a robot touch a human on trust in that robot. In three online studies, observers watched short videos of human–robot interactions and provided a series of judgments about the robot, which either did or did not touch the human on the shoulder. Trust was measured using a recently introduced multi-dimensional instrument, which assesses people’s trust in a robot as being capable, reliable, sincere, and/or ethical. The first study showed that observed robot touch increased overall trust in the robot, especially for the sincere and ethical trust aspects, and led people to perceive the robot as more comforting, but also more inappropriate. A second study replicated the general pattern, even with a handshake preceding the touch; but in the context of the handshake the touch was seen as more inappropriate. A third study examined the joint impact of a handshake, touch, and information about the robot’s designed function. In the context of such information, observed touch was seen as even more inappropriate, which in turn decreased trust.

随着机器人开始占据我们的社交空间，触摸将越来越成为人机交互的一部分。本文研究了观察机器人触摸人对信任该机器人的信任的影响。在三项在线研究中，观察者观看了有关人机交互的简短视频，并提供了有关该机的一系列判断，该判断是否触及了人的肩膀。信任度是使用最近推出的多维工具来衡量的，该工具将人们对机器人的信任度评估为具有能力，可靠，真诚和/或道德。首次研究表明，观察到的机器人触摸会增加对机器人的整体信任，特别是在真诚和道德信任方面，并使人们认为机器人更舒适，但也更不合适。第二项研究复制了一般模式，即使在触摸之前握手 但在握手的情况下，触摸被认为更不合适。第三项研究检查了握手，触摸和有关机器人设计功能的信息的联合影响。在这种信息的背景下，观察到的触摸被认为更加不合适，从而降低了信任度。