How robot's animacy affects human tolerance for their malfunctions?

This paper focuses on “animacy” of a robot in order for the robot to be accepted to our daily lives. Related research shows as the robot's perceived animacy increases, perceived friendliness toward the robot also increases. We hypothesize as the animacy of the robot's behavior increases, our tolerance level for the robot's malfunction also increases. Lego Mindstorms is used to evaluate the robot's animacy, friendliness, and tolerance level while performing experimental tasks. The results showed the contrary evaluation of the tolerance level, as the higher animacy of the robot resulted in lower tolerance by the participants. The results also suggest that there is a dichotomy in the tolerance level of the robot's malfunctions between participants' mental stance to the robot.