{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.029292929292929294, 'fraction_numerical': 0.012121212121212121, 'mean_word_length': 4.795321637426901, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Robots, children, and helping: Do children help a robot in need?

This study examined the interactions between children and robots by observing whether children help a robot complete a task under five conditions to determine which elicited the most help. Each condition had an experimental and control group, with 20–32 children (even number of boys and girls) in each group. Visitors to a science centre located in a major Western Canadian city were invited to participate in an experiment set up at the centre. Their behaviors with a robot, a small 5 degree of freedom robot arm, were observed. Results of chi-square analyses indicated that children are most likely to help a robot after being introduced to it, X2(1) = 4.15, p = .04. This condition was the only one of five tested that demonstrated a significant increase in children's helping behaviors. These results suggest that an adult's demonstrated positive introduction to a robot impacts children's helping behaviors towards it.