How will personality influence humans' interactions with robots?
I think that there are a number of ways in which personality is going to influence our humans’ interactions with robots and other mechanical devices. And that is: the nature of our interaction is very much affect by the personality of those other individuals, whether that individual is another human, a robot, or perhaps, as some of my other research shows, other types of animals. People are very much interested in the personality of dogs when they select a dog, because that affects the nature of their interactions. Some dogs are better lapdogs, some dogs are better at going on exercising, and so on.
So, just as we may choose a dog, a romantic partner or a co-worker on the basis of personality, it is very likely we will also make those kinds of deliberations when choosing a robot. Now, of course, what is interesting here is that robots are not subject to the same biological constraints that humans or dogs are. And we may be able to find, we may be able to design a robot that matches our personality. Now it seems quite likely that we will be able to do that.