Blind Trust: How Making a Device Humanoid Reduces the Impact of Functional Errors on Trust

Humanoid robots are starting to replace information kiosks in public spaces, providing increased engagement and an intuitive interface. Upgrading devices to be humanoid in this fashion may have unexpected consequences relating to the new, more social, embodiment. We investigated how altering a voice-command calculator kiosk, by making it humanoid, impacts user trust and trust resilience after functional errors. Our results indicate that making a kiosk humanoid increases both overall trust and trust resilience, where it reduces the impact of functional errors on trust. As public kiosks continue to be replaced by humanoids, this highlights the importance of understanding the full impact of this embodiment change on interaction.