Researchhas shownthat local dialects play an important role in self, in-group, and cultural identity.
But can they also impact our interaction with robots?
To facilitate their relationship with people, these robots feature many anthropomorphic characteristics, including human-like appearance and voice.
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We, as humans, also bring ourselves in that interaction.
And very often we ignore the human element.
So we wanted to look at this relationship from both sides, she added.
To assess the impact of the local dialect, the team surveyed 120 Berlin residents.
The role of dialect
Overall, the survey found a direct link between competence and trust.
It also showed a slight trend of preference towards the standard German-speaking robot.
Nevertheless, the difference wasnt statistically significant and both robots had comparable ratings.
According to Kuhne, there are two mechanisms at play.
The team plans to conduct further studies on other dialects which have their own linguistic and cultural differences.
Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou
Ioanna is a writer at TNW.
With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
