The Effects of Robot Managers’ Reward-Punishment Behaviours on Human–Robot Trust and Job Performance

In a human–robot team, robots may play a manager, helping to maintain the behavioural norms of its team. Robots as managers have the power to reward and punish. Currently, a small number of previous relevant studies have mainly focused on the impact of robot punishment behaviour on human beings, but managers without reward behaviour have difficulty gaining the trust of members. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours on human–robot trust and job performance and explores the mediating effect of emotion and the moderating effect of group relations. The study recruited 76 participants using a 2 (independent variable robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours: reward behaviour, punishment behaviour) × 2 (moderator variable human–robot group relations: ingroup and outgroup) experimental design, and each participant and a robot manager worked together to complete the task of sorting items. It was found that the robot managers' reward-punishment behaviours have an impact on human emotions. Emotions play a mediating role in the effect of robot managers' reward-punishment behaviours on human trust but do not play a mediating role in the effect on job performance. The human–robot group relation plays a moderating role in the effects of emotions on human–robot trust. The research results help more preferably understand the interaction mechanism of the human–robot team and more preferably serve the management and cooperation of the human–robot team by appropriately adjusting the robot managers' reward and punishment behaviours in the human–robot team and the human–robot group relation.