Aryania, Azra, Chockalingam, Sabarathinam, Rødsethol, Hanne Kristine and Alenya, Guillem (2026) Impact of Design Transparency on Trust and Data Sharing during Human-Robot Interactions in Public Places. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 15 (2): 49. pp. 1-22. ISSN 1557-7325
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Abstract
The prevalence of social robots is increasing, with examples such as customer service robots in malls and
airports. This trend highlights the importance of transparency, particularly in data-sharing interactions
with social robots operating in public spaces, where users may be asked to provide personal information to
receive personalized experiences. This article investigates how design transparency influences user trust and
data-sharing behavior in human-robot interactions. We conducted an experiment with 143 participants who
interacted with the social robot ARI under two transparency conditions: low and high transparency. In the
low-transparency condition, participants were informed about the data being collected and could choose to
save or delete it. In the high-transparency condition, the robot additionally indicated the sensitivity level of
each data item: low (e.g., scenario preference), medium (e.g., name and e-mail), and high (e.g., religious beliefs),
allowing participants to make more informed decisions. Participants were presented with two scenarios:
exploring city events and discovering local attractions. They received personalized recommendations based
on their preferences, with the option to provide personal data (name, phone number, e-mail) for possible
future communication. After the interaction, participants decided whether to save or delete the data they
had shared. The results indicated that while transparency did not significantly affect trust in the robot, it
influenced data-sharing behavior. In particular, participants in the high-transparency condition demonstrated
more cautious behavior, opting to save less data and delete more. Furthermore, the results showed that both
sensitivity levels and transparency influenced the participants’ data-sharing choices. Low-level sensitivity data
led to the highest rates of saving and the lowest rates of deleting, while medium-level sensitivity data showed
the opposite pattern. These findings highlight the need to align data categorization with user perceptions to
address data sharing concerns more effectively.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | CCS Concepts; Social and professional topics; Privacy policies; Human centered computing; Interaction devices; Data sharing; Human Robot Interaction; Transparency; Trust; Social Robots; |
| Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Innovation Value Institute, IVI |
| Item ID: | 21856 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1145/3785152 |
| Depositing User: | IR Editor |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Sep 2026 11:06 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) |
| Publisher: | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Related URLs: | |
| Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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