It might be tempting to assume that robots are largely inanimate objects with little in the way of personality for us to latch onto.  As such, assigning a gender to a robot probably seems like a pointless endeavor.  Research from Washington State University suggests otherwise, however.

The study argues that people may actually be happier conversing with a robot in hospitality settings if the robot appears to be female rather than male.  This was especially so when the robot was humanoid in appearance.

“People have a tendency to feel more comfort in being cared for by females because of existing gender stereotyping about service roles,” the authors explain. “That gender stereotype appears to transfer to robot interactions, and it is more amplified when the robots are more human like.”

Effective robots

The authors highlight the intense staffing challenges in the hospitality sector, which have prompted some hotels to turn to robots and other forms of automation to do everything from room cleaning to customer service.

The research saw volunteers shown a number of scenarios whereby they would have to interact with a service robot in a hotel.  The scenarios were broadly identical except for the appearance of the robot, with some robots designed to be humanoid and with either a male or female face, while other times the robot was more machine-like in its appearance and without a face.

The volunteers were asked how they rated their interactions.  The results show that those interacting with a “female” robot rated their experience consistently higher, more satisfying, and more pleasant than when they interacted with a “male” robot.

While the authors aren’t advocating a wholesale replacement of human hospitality workers with robots, they do nonetheless hope that their findings shed some light on how our gendered expectations of certain professions are likely to influence how successful our interactions with robots will be.