Understanding how children understand robots: Perceived animism in child–robot interaction

Centuries ago, the existence of life was explained by the presence of a soul (Tylor, 1871). Known as animism, this term was re-defined in the 1970s by Piaget as young children's beliefs that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have life-like qualities. With the development of robots in the 21st century, researchers have begun examining whether animism is apparent in children's impressions of robots. The purpose of this study was to use a model of knowledge structures, or schemata, to examine whether children attribute human qualities of cognition, affect, and behavior to a robot. An experiment was set up at a science center located in a major Western Canadian city, and visitors to the center were invited to participate. A total of 198 children ages 5–16 years (M=8.18 years) with an approximate even number of boys and girls were included. Children completed a semi-structured interview after observing a robot, a small 5 degree of freedom robot arm, perform a block stacking task. Answers to the nine questions about the robot were scored according to whether they referenced humanistic qualities. Results from frequency and content analyses suggest that a significant proportion of children ascribe cognitive, behavioral, and especially affective, characteristics to robots.

► Children endorsed many animistic characteristics of a robot.
► Children assigned more affective than cognitive or behavioral characteristics.
► Evidence of animism was obtained from children's references to the robot.