Will You Rely on a Robot to Find a Treasure?

Collaborative interaction between human partners is based on trust. Similarly in HRI, trust is crucial aspect that regulates the confidence in the robot partner. Through the challenge of a Treasure Hunt, we intend to explore whether people tend to trust and rely on robot help, even when they are not instructed to do so. Results suggest that participants resort to robot support only when under pressure, but then follow with no hesitation its advice. In addition, we show that robot's perceived anthropomorphism and animacy increase, also when the robot help did not lead to subjects' victory at the game.