Sharing stressors with a social robot prototype: What embodiment do adolescents prefer?

Social robots may be an effective and appropriate technology to help reduce stress in adolescents, thereby improving mental health. Designing appropriate and engaging human–robot interactions must take into consideration the effect of the robot embodiment. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory, within-person study with 66 US adolescents (ages 14-19) in local high schools and a university setting. We compared stress disclosure interactions with a social robot prototype in three distinct embodiments:​ physically present, digitally rendered on a computer screen, and in immersive virtual reality. We compared participants’ responses to attribute ratings as well as their verbal engagement for all embodiments. After interacting with all three embodiments, participants completed exit surveys and interviews in which they identified and discussed their interaction experiences and their preferred robot embodiment. Participants suggested that sharing stress with the robots was helpful and they clearly articulated their individual views on the benefits and detriments of each robot embodiment. Overall, the physical robot was rated most comfortable. However, more adolescents preferred the interaction with the virtual embodiment than the digital or physical. Statistically significant gender differences were found in verbal engagement. Both quantitative and qualitative data from this study provide a preliminary understanding of how adolescents experience interactions with social robots as well as their preferences for certain embodiments.