Who will you imitate? Studying reciprocal influence in children-robot groups during an imitation game

This work aims to advance the understanding of group dynamics in robot-child interactions, focusing on whether, during a motor-imitation task led by a Nao robot, children might be influenced in their action executions by other group members - human or robotic. After testing eighteen groups of four children and teenagers, our findings indicate that participants tend to disregard the robot when it performs atypical gestures, preferring instead to imitate the actions of a human peer. Moreover, we found evidence that, in this scenario, assigning a leadership role to the robot does not, by itself, guarantee compliance from human group members; broader group dynamics must also be taken into account. Further results show that participants are significantly more likely to imitate the robot’s action when the “proactive” group members (i.e., those who initiate actions first) conform to Nao, compared to when they do not. Previous studies suggest that the mutual influence of group members can facilitate interaction with a robotic agent; however, our findings show that the presence of proactive members could also undermine the group’s conformity to the robot. Additionally, these findings highlight the importance of personalizing robots to better integrate into specific group dynamics, enhancing their ability to influence different groups effectively.