The wizard and I: How transparent teleoperation and self‑description (do not) affect children’s robot perceptions and child‑robot relationship formation

It has been well documented that children perceive robots as social, mental, and moral others. Studies on child-robot inter-action may encourage this perception of robots, first, by using a Wizard of Oz (i.e., teleoperation) set-up and, second, by having robots engage in self-description. However, much remains unknown about the effects of transparent teleoperation and self-description on children’s perception of, and relationship formation with a robot. To address this research gap initially, we conducted an experimental study with a 2 × 2 (teleoperation: overt/covert; self-description: yes/no) between-subject design in which 168 children aged 7–10 interacted with a Nao robot once. Transparency about the teleoperation procedure decreased children’s perceptions of the robot’s autonomy and anthropomorphism. Self-description reduced the degree to which children perceived the robot as being similar to themselves. Transparent teleoperation and self-description affected neither children’s perceptions of the robot’s animacy and social presence nor their closeness to and trust in the robot.