Priming Anthropomorphism: Can the credibility of humanlike robots be transferred to non-humanlike robots?

We investigated the perceived credibility of statements made by robots, hypothesising that people are more likely to believe robots with humanlike characteristics than those that are less anthropomorphic. We also examined whether prior experience with a humanlike robot would lead people to extend this advantage to the less-anthropomorphic robot. A measure of credibility was provided by agreement on the pricing of objects, where participants negotiated with either a more (iCub) or less-anthropomorphic robot (Scitos G5) that was engaged in more (using social gaze) or less-humanlike (fixed gaze) social behaviour. In the first experiment participants only interacted with Scitos G5, in the second they interacted with Scitos G5 only after having first interacted iCub. Results showed that iCub was more credible than Scitos G5, and was the only robot to benefit from the use of social gaze. It was also found that the credibility of the Scitos G5 was higher after participants were `primed' by prior exposure to the iCub.