Design a robot that is able to…: Gender stereotypes in children’s imagination of robots

Abstract: Gender stereotypes not only affect relationships between humans but can also be activated in interactions with technologies. This is especially true when technologies take on anthropomorphic or even humanoid aspects, as is the case with many robots. How much gender stereotypes in interactions with robots are already active in children is still a matter of debate. Above all, it can be noted that studies on this issue have been conducted by asking for evaluative judgments with reference to existing robots, whether these were real, simulated, or only represented through images. This approach may have introduced an evaluative bias due to the design of the robots themselves by their manufacturers. Therefore, it appeared necessary to conduct a study in which children were asked to design, more specifically to draw, a robot that was able to perform either a more stereotypically female or a male task.Method and ProcedureParticipantsSixty children (28 girls, 46.6%) aged 11 to 13 years participated in the study. MethodThe study was carried out at school under the presence of the teachers and two researchers. During a first phase, the children were asked to individually draw a robot able to perform either the task of shoveling the snow (stereotypically a male task) or decorating a house (stereotypically a female task). They were told that the aim of this activity was to provide help to designers in implementing such robots. The children had no time limits to complete the drawings.In a second phase, after having drawn the robots and still in the classroom, children were asked to fill out a printed questionnaire with the aim to collect some general personal information (age, gender and class attended) and further data on the robots (gender, age, anthropomorphic characteristics, and the materials the robot was made of).ResultsChildren drew equally (45%) robots that they said were neither male nor female, or that were male. Only 6 (10%) female robots were drawn.This result is not related to whether children chose to draw robots to decorate the house or to shoveling the snow. In fact, drawings related to these two tasks were produced in almost the same percentage: 32 robots for decorating the house (53.33%) and 28 robots for shoveling the snow (46.67%).It is worth noting that the 6 female robots were all drawn by girls and that the male children drew male robots in greater numbers (N = 18) ((2) = 8.81, p < .02).In relation to the level of anthropomorphism, the results suggest that the children wanted to draw robots scarcely resembling human beings: they were almost all made of metal (N = 55; 91.67%), only 15 (25%) had anything resembling a face, and those with an actual face were only 3 (5%).ConclusionFor children, gender stereotypes in reference to robots seem to refer mainly to the fact that these technologies are considered masculine or gender-neutral regardless of their anthropomorphic characteristics.

Keywords: Gender stereotypes, Robots, Human-computer interaction

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005010

Cite this paper:

​