Let Me Introduce Myself-Using Self-Disclosure as a Social Cue for Health Care Robots

In health care, social care robots might approach humans more closely and sensitively than ever before. It is, therefore, essential to ensure that patients trust and accept them. Since hospital stays often offer only little time to gain experience interacting with a robot, it is important to identify strategies to strengthen the building of trust right from the first contact. One construct promoting trust in human-human interaction is self-disclosure. The aim of this study is to examine whether it also has a trust-promoting effect in human-robot interaction. Therefore, a study was conducted where subjects experienced a hospital scenario: A social care robot introduced itself, either just listing its tasks or additionally sharing personal information about itself. It was investigated whether a self-disclosing care robot is perceived as more trustworthy, anthropomorphic, likeable, and perceived as mindful, as well as more likely to be accepted than a robot that did not do so. A content analysis of the reasons for acceptance was conducted, as well as a semantic analysis of the adjectives used to describe the robot. The quantitative analysis revealed no significant difference between the introductions for the variables trust, acceptance, anthropomorphism, likeability, and mind perception. Descriptive data indicate a possible positive impact of self-disclosure on acceptance and likeability. In the self-disclosure condition, trust in technology was most often cited as a reason for accepting the robot. In the low self-disclosure condition, concerns about possible errors of the robot were mentioned most often. The most frequent reason for acceptance was a potential relief for nursing staff.