  To investigate the functional and social acceptance of a humanoid robot, we
carried out an experimental study with 56 adult participants and the iCub
robot. Trust in the robot has been considered as a main indicator of acceptance
in decision-making tasks characterized by perceptual uncertainty (e.g.,
evaluating the weight of two objects) and socio-cognitive uncertainty (e.g.,
evaluating which is the most suitable item in a specific context), and measured
by the participants' conformation to the iCub's answers to specific questions.
In particular, we were interested in understanding whether specific (i)
user-related features (i.e. desire for control), (ii) robot-related features
(i.e., attitude towards social influence of robots), and (iii) context-related
features (i.e., collaborative vs. competitive scenario), may influence their
trust towards the iCub robot. We found that participants conformed more to the
iCub's answers when their decisions were about functional issues than when they
were about social issues. Moreover, the few participants conforming to the
iCub's answers for social issues also conformed less for functional issues.
Trust in the robot's functional savvy does not thus seem to be a pre-requisite
for trust in its social savvy. Finally, desire for control, attitude towards
social influence of robots and type of interaction scenario did not influence
the trust in iCub. Results are discussed with relation to methodology of HRI
research.
