Giving Robots a Hard Time: A Field Experiment on the Role of Robot Politeness and Social Norms for Robot Bullying

Robot bullying - purposeful obstructive or harmful behavior to-ward robots - is widely discussed but still under-researched, with mixed findings under realistic conditions. In this field experi-ment (N = 35), we tested how robot social role behavior (coop-erative-polite vs. functional-technological) and social norms (pro- vs. anti-bullying) influence bullying of a cleaning robot. Bullying was measured via an adapted hot-sauce paradigm, alongside anthropomorphism and trust. Participants bullied the impolite robot significantly more, while social norms showed no significant effects. Anthropomorphism and trust were higher for the polite robot. This indicates that robots’ social roles shape robot perceptions and harmful behavior towards them.