Investigating User Perceptions of HRI in Social Contexts

In this paper, we present the results of a recent user study that investigates if user perception of HRI in social contexts may be affected by changing the interaction modality with the robot. Leveraging on Robot Social Attribute Scale (RoSAS) survey and on a statistical analysis, our results show that, in some interaction modalities, a greater feeling of discomfort is felt by users interacting with the robot. Interestingly, results also show the influence of users' gender on the user perception.