Rate My Robot: The effect of Word-of-Mouth (WOM) on perceptions of a social robot’s teaching performance

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the impact of computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on perceptions of a social robot instructing students. We hypothesized that participants receiving positive WOM about the social robot instructor would rate the robot higher for perceived credibility, attraction (social and task), social presence, and report higher levels of affective learning and state motivation to learn versus those participants receiving negative WOM (or no WOM) about the same performance. Results demonstrated that there are some factors in evaluating robot performance that are beyond the actual abilities of the robot. Results are examined using the Heuristic-Systematic Processing model, and the impact of WOM on perceptions of social robots in the environment. As a result of these findings, designers and practitioners need to be conscious of WOM.