Effects of Robot Clothing on First Impressions, Gender, Human-Likeness, and Suitability of a Robot for Occupations

Clothing is often used as a way to communicate about one’s identity. It can provide information about characteristics such as gender, age, occupation, and status as well as more subjective attributes such as trustworthiness and friendliness. In this paper we report on exploratory research that we conducted by means of three studies to investigate the effects of clothing on a Pepper robot. Three outfits that varied in style and colour were compared with each other and the robot without clothing. Findings from an online survey suggest that gender perception but not human-likeness can be manipulated by clothing. We also found that first impressions on expertise and likeability may vary with clothing style and may induce stereotypical job associations. In a second study, we interviewed experts which were all familiar with the Pepper platform to obtain a more qualitative perspective on robot clothing. The interviews made clear that specific features of clothing may trigger strong associations with, for example, occupations, and that features such as headdress may make an outfit look more like a uniform. Finally, we conducted a field experiment comparing two clothing conditions for a receptionist robot in a natural setting and found that a robot with uniform appears to be more engaging. Our findings suggest that robot clothing may have an effect on first impressions, gender perception, and engagement in interactions with users in the wild.