Presentation
"I Feel You" vs. "I Understand You": How Distinct Empathic Strategies Shape Robot Personality and Trust for Older Adults
DescriptionSocially assistive robots (SARs) and conversational agents have the potential to support older adults, but their successful adoption depends heavily on user trust. This study examines how affective and cognitive empathic dialogue shape perceived robot personality and trust among older adults. Specifically, we investigated whether empathic dialogue influences perceived Big Five personality traits in a robot, and whether trust is associated with personality similarity or dissimilarity between users and robots. In a between-subjects experiment across three conditions (affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and control), 341 U.S. older adults aged 65 and older viewed animated robot interaction videos and evaluated their own personality, the robot’s perceived personality, and their trust in the robot. Results showed that dialogue strategy significantly influenced all five perceived robot personality dimensions. Affective dialogue produced the highest perceived Conscientiousness, while both affective and cognitive empathy increased perceived Agreeableness, Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness compared with the control condition. Regression analyses revealed a mixed similarity–trust pattern: similarity in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted higher trust, whereas dissimilarity in Extraversion was associated with higher trust. These findings suggest that empathic dialogue is an important social cue in SAR design and inform future adaptive, personality-aware dialogue strategies for older adults.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeWednesday, October 21st1:30pm - 1:50pm PDT
Location