Validating Video Stimuli for Perceived Robot Autonomy: A Pre-test for Experimental HRI

The present study proposes a stimulus validation designed to identify a controlled manipulation of perceived robot autonomy for use in a larger investigation on social robot acceptance. One hundred participants viewed six brief videos depicting the same robot executing identical movements under two control conditions and three environmental scenarios. The assessment of perceived autonomy was conducted through the utilisation of a five-item scale. The experimental design comprised a 2x3 mixed design, with the control condition functioning as a between-subjects factor and the scenario as a within-subjects factor. A mixed ANOVA revealed a strong main effect of condition and a significant interaction with scenario, indicating that contextual cues influence autonomy attribution. The most significant perceptual separation was observed in the presence of a human passer-by. This validated stimulus set facilitates controlled experimentation to ascertain how individual orientations influence acceptance in human-robot interaction.