From "Made In" to Mukokuseki: Exploring the Visual Perception of National Identity in Robots

People read human characteristics into the design of social robots, a visual process with socio-cultural implications. One factor may be nationality, a complex social characteristic that is linked to ethnicity, culture, and other factors of identity that can be embedded in the visual design of robots. Guided by social identity theory (SIT), we explored the notion of "mukokuseki," a visual design characteristic defined by the absence of visual cues to national and ethnic identity in Japanese cultural exports. In a two-phase categorization study (n=212), American (n=110) and Japanese (n=92) participants rated a random selection of nine robot stimuli from America and Japan, plus multinational Pepper. We found evidence of made-in and two kinds of mukokuseki effects. We offer suggestions for the visual design of mukokuseki robots that may interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Our findings have implications for robots and social identity, the viability of robotic exports, and the use of robots internationally.

Exploring Gender-Expansive Categorization Options for Robots

Gender is increasingly being explored as a social characteristic ascribed to robots by people. Yet, research involving social robots that may be gendered tends not to address gender perceptions, such as through pilot studies or manipulation checks. Moreover, research that does address gender perceptions has been limited by a reliance on the human gender binary model of feminine and masculine, prescriptive response options, and/or researcher assumptions and/or ascriptions of participant gendering. In response, we conducted an online pilot categorization study (n=55) wherein we provided gender-expansive response options for rating four robots ranging across four levels of anthropomorphism. Findings indicate that people gender robots in diverse ways, and not necessarily in relation to the gender binary. Additionally, less anthropomorphic robots and the childlike humanoid robot were deemed masculine, while the iconic robot was deemed gender neutral, fluid, and/or ambiguous. We discuss implications for future work on all humanoid robots.