Getting to know someone helps any relationship, even one with an "individual" made of nuts, bolts and electronic gear.
That is, Pennsylvania State University researchers recently found that people who took part in a study on assembling robots liked the machines better - and felt more at ease with them - after helping to make them.
Not everyone felt that way, though. For some who felt too much aggravation during the assembly process, a little togetherness was too much. In that case, individuals tended to express more negative evaluations of their mechanical non-friend.
In general, however: "There is this so-called Ikea effect, with consumer behavior research supporting the notion that when people assemble the products themselves, they feel a great sense of accomplishment and they see themselves reflected in the products they helped to build," noted S. Shyam Sundar at Penn State. "We guessed that if you find that effect in objects like furniture, you would find that effect in interactive media and especially robots."
In the research, people who participated in assembling their own robots showed a higher sense of accomplishment and a deeper sense of ownership.
If a participant had difficulties in assembling or programming the robot, they gave lower ratings of the robot and their interaction with it.
"The manufacturer should give the customer a sense of ownership and a sense of accomplishment, but without making the process feel too painful because if the perceived process costs are too great, robot evaluation is going to suffer," commented Sundar. In the study, Sundar worked with Yuan Sun, a communications graduate student.
It might be optimal for manufacturers to mention positive factors of self-assembly, while making a small matter of any possible negative effects, particularly in a market that is wary of robot use, Sundar said. Another tip, he said, is that customizing robots in an ongoing way might help owners to hold onto their original positive feelings.
"One design implication in our findings is that robots should be customizable by individual users and the customization should go beyond the assembly stage," said Sundar. "While self-assembly can provide an initial sense of accomplishment, the sense of ownership can be sustained with tailoring options that users can continue to tinker with, long after the initial set up."
The study findings were recently presented by the co-authors at the Human-Robot Interaction conference.
In the future, researchers might want to collect and examine the types of responses participants have during the assembly process.
Follow Catherine Arnold on Twitter at @TreesWhales.
