Newswise — More and more, social robots are employed to provide assistance in educational settings. However, does the auditory aspect of a social robot influence its performance, particularly when engaging with groups of individuals? Collaborative efforts play a vital role in human ingenuity, enhancing cooperation and fresh concepts. Danish researchers aimed to ascertain whether robots employing a charismatic-sounding voice would prove more effective as catalysts for team creativity.
Dr. Kerstin Fischer, the corresponding author of the study in Frontiers in Communication from the University of Southern Denmark, explained, "In a creativity task, we had a robot providing instructions to student teams. The robot employed either a confident, passionate - that is, charismatic - tone of voice, or a regular, straightforward tone of voice. Our findings indicated that when the robot adopted a charismatic speaking style, students' ideas exhibited greater originality and elaboration."
Can a robot be charismatic?
It is established that social robots acting as facilitators have the potential to enhance creativity, and one contributing factor to the effectiveness of facilitators is charisma. Charismatic speech has the ability to instill confidence and engagement in individuals. With this understanding, Fischer and her team sought to investigate whether this effect could be replicated through the voices of social robots. They achieved this by developing a text-to-speech function that incorporated specific characteristics associated with charismatic speaking, such as a defined pitch range and emphasis on certain words. Two voices were created: one with charismatic qualities and another with less expressive attributes. These voices were constructed based on a variety of parameters that align with the perception of speaker charisma.
For their study, the researchers enlisted the participation of five university classes consisting of students enrolled in courses that incorporated elements of team creativity. The students were informed that they would be partaking in a creativity workshop, which involved the process of generating ideas based on images and subsequently utilizing those ideas to conceive a novel chocolate product. The workshop was facilitated through video presentations of a robot, which addressed the students by introducing the task, assuring them that there were no wrong ideas, and offering congratulations upon completion of the task. Following the workshop, the students were requested to complete a self-evaluation questionnaire that assessed various aspects including the robot's performance, the students' perceptions of their own teamwork, and the overall success of the session. Moreover, the researchers quantified the level of creativity exhibited during each session by measuring the number of original ideas generated as well as their level of intricacy.
Powering creativity with charisma
The findings of the study revealed that the group of students who listened to the charismatic voice rated the robot more favorably, perceiving it as being more charismatic and interactive. This group also reported a more positive perception of their teamwork and demonstrated a higher production of original and elaborate ideas. Moreover, they rated their overall teamwork experience more positively. On the other hand, the group exposed to the non-charismatic voice perceived themselves as more resilient and efficient. This could be attributed to the fact that having a less charismatic leader prompted better organization and coordination among the team members themselves. However, it should be noted that this group generated a comparatively smaller number of ideas.
Dr. Oliver Niebuhr, a co-author of the study from the University of Southern Denmark, expressed his anticipation regarding the significant impact of charismatic speech. He stated, "I had suspected that charismatic speech has very important effects, but our study offers compelling evidence regarding the influence of charismatic speech on listener creativity." Dr. Niebuhr further highlighted the significance of their findings, emphasizing that this is the first instance in which a connection has been established between charismatic voices, artificial speakers, and the resulting outputs of creativity.
The scientists acknowledged that while the sessions featuring the charismatic voice generally yielded more favorable outcomes, they observed variations in the responses of different teams to the different voices. They speculated that prior experiences within their respective classes might have influenced the teams' reactions. They emphasized the need for more extensive studies to gain a deeper understanding of how these external factors impact team performance. By conducting larger-scale investigations, researchers can delve into the complexities of these dynamics and their influence on the overall effectiveness of team interactions.
Dr. Fischer noted that in their study, the robot was only present in video form, and they speculated that increased or repeated exposure to the charismatic speaking style might have even more pronounced effects. Additionally, they highlighted that they had only manipulated a few features between the two robot conditions, and the impact of varying other or additional features remains unknown. Furthermore, they emphasized the cultural variability of charismatic speaking patterns, suggesting that the same stimuli may not yield identical results across different languages and cultures. These factors indicate the need for further exploration and research to better understand the nuances and potential variations in the effects of charismatic speech in different contexts and cultural settings.
RSS