Do geeks dream of electric sheep? A study of the relationship between Geekism and anthropomorphization of robotic agents

The following study aims at researching the relationship between people with high Geekism and anthropomorphic tendencies concerning robotic agents. On basis of literature analysis of three sub aspects, namely Geekism, Anthropomorphism and Human-Robot Interaction, this study’s main question “ Do technological interested people have a lesser tendency towards anthropomorphic behavior than other people?” was formulated. A combination of explicit and implicit measurement tools was used to gather data about several personality traits of the participants, and furthermore to measure their Anthropomorphism. The analysis was conducted by using a combination of Pearson-correlation analysis and the mixed effect model, to account for repeated measures that were done in this study. In order to have a reference point for our analysis the three-factor approach of Epley, et al., 2007 is used to compare our data and verify our findings. The result of our study indicate that there is no distinct relationship between technological interest and anthropomorphic behavior, but also show that the three-factor approach by Epley, et al., 2007 is not applicable to every participant group as suggested. The usage of the Stroop task to assess anthropomorphic tendencies was rendered insufficient due to lack of significant results, which indicates that other implicit measuring tool must be considered to measure Anthropomorphism. Following studies can use this study as framework to form a basis of Geekism as well as Anthropomorphism and their relationship.