Emotions and personality evoked by the robot face shape and proportions

• Main Author: Wong, Clarissa Jieshuang.
• Other Authors: Martin Erik Gustav Helander
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49766
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report presents the results of a questionnaire study which investigated the perceived emotions and personality evoked by robot faces. Factors such as different genders and extroversion of an individual which affect one’s perception were explored. The design of the robot face proportions was inspired by the golden ratio which people found it to be attractive. In this study, 10 models with varied face proportions and shapes were presented to 40 participants. Their responses were collected and analysed using statistical methods. Results have shown that males gave higher ratings to female robots for both positive and negative emotions evoked than females. Furthermore, ratings of each individual personality trait between models were significantly affected by participants’ gender and extroversion. Models which have facial proportional close to the golden ratio were not perceived to be the most attractive. Rather, a heart-shaped face with a facial proportion of 1.2 (ratio for height of head to width of face) was perceived to be the most attractive and it evoked many positive emotions and personality traits. Furthermore, its likability was ranked the highest among 10 models. These results provide a good insight for future research involving the design of robot faces.