Relationships Between Humans’ Gender Conception, Expected Gender Appearances, and the Roles of Robots: A Survey in Japan

Although existing studies have suggested that gender stereotypes affect human perceptions about robots, neither what type of robot tasks or roles are expected to show gender characteristics nor whether expected gender characteristics are directly related to conventional gender conceptions have been sufficiently investigated. To explore these issues, this study conducted two online surveys. In the first survey (N = 500) a total of 30 items related to interaction scenes asked whether male, female, or neutral gender was preferred in terms of the appearance of communication partners in these scenes, and five categories regarding the roles and tasks of robots were extracted based on expected gender appearances. The results revealed a weak effect showing higher gender conceptions inviting a female gender appearance preference in some categories. The second survey (N = 400) measured participants’ gender conception, negative attitudes toward robots, gender appearance preferences for the categories of robot roles and tasks extracted in the first survey, and occupations to investigate relationships between them. The results revealed that the influence of gender stereotypes and negative attitudes toward robots on gender appearance preferences changed depending on human occupation, in particular, those with the occupations of counselor, adviser, nurse, and caregiver were not associated with stereotypes, attitudes, or gender preferences toward robots playing roles in their own field of expertise.