The influence of social cues in persuasive social robots on psychological reactance and compliance

People can react negatively to persuasive attempts experiencing reactance, which gives rise to negative feelings and thoughts and may reduce compliance. This research examines social responses towards persuasive social agents. We present a laboratory experiment which assessed reactance and compliance to persuasive attempts delivered by an artificial (non-robotic) social agent, a social robot with minimal social cues (human-like face with speech output and blinking eyes), and a social robot with enhanced social cues (human-like face with head movement, facial expression, affective intonation of speech output). Our results suggest that a social robot presenting more social cues will cause higher reactance and this effect is stronger when the user feels involved in the task at hand.