RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIKING THE PERSONAL ROBOT ‘PAPERO' AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN CASE OF ELDERLY PEOPLE

Personality traits and Robot Design

抄録

Most advanced countries are currently aged societies. Various coping strategies must be considered for the elderly to improve their quality of life. Recently, the use of personal robots has emerged as a coping strategy. Positive feelings toward personal robots are considered important to ensure effective interaction with them. This study examined the relationships between the liking or attraction to the personal robot PaPeRo, developed by NEC, and the personality traits of elderly people. We expected to find relationships between liking PaPeRo and personality traits for elderly people. We used scales of liking PaPeRo, interpersonal trust, a multi-dimensional empathy scale, and an internal working model scale. The results showed that users deeply attached to PaPeRo were more empathetic and exhibited more stable attachment than those who moderately liked PaPeRo. It is believed that elderly people have fewer opportunities to create new relationships, and those with empathetic abilities and more stable attachment style would seek opportunities to communicate with PaPeRo. Thus, they might regard PaPeRo a great substitute for others. Therefore, it was suggested that it is necessary to devise a design for the robot that would enhance communication between PaPeRo and elderly people and their quality of life.