While neurotic robots are a staple of science fiction — just think of C-3PO in Star Wars or Marvin in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — they haven't really been a focus of research into how people react to robots' personalities.
But one recent study found that a highly neurotic robot provoked some interesting responses.
"A majority of participants actually mentioned how human-like they found the neurotic robot," says Alex Wuqi Zhang, a researcher at the University of Chicago. "They found it to be a lot more relatable."
The experiment involved a human-shaped robot made of white plastic. People who were visiting a museum in Chicago were randomly invited to go into a room and interact with the robot, which was described as a restaurant greeter. The bot and the person had to sit together and just answer some simple questions.
"The first one is, 'What are three things that you are grateful for?'" says Zhang.
When the robot had been given a highly extroverted personality, it spoke of being "super grateful" for the "amazing people" it got to meet each day. "It's the best part of my job, hands down!" the robot enthused.
But when the robot had been given a highly neurotic personality, it spoke more tentatively, peppering its answer with filler words like "um." It said it was grateful for having a job where it could keep things organized so it could stay focused and avoid "unexpected issues."
The experiment also included a third version of the robot with a more typical robot personality that was bland and flat. People generally didn't like that one.
Overall, they rated the extroverted robot as the most enjoyable to interact with.
But the neurotic robot was described as being surprisingly able to understand deep emotions.
One person remarked that the neurotic robot "seemed like a person who was trying to get by in the world", while another commented, "I think we both seem to make an effort to think about ourselves and do lots of inner contemplation."
"We found a lot of joy and fun in seeing that personality," says Sarah Sebo, a computer science researcher at the University of Chicago and one of the authors of the study. "We felt there was a lot of novelty in trying to explore, like, what does it mean for the robot to express neuroticism."
"But at the same time," she says, "I think there's also a question of when this would actually be helpful."
Overwhelmingly, past research into robot personalities has centered on only one personality trait: extroversion, which involves being outgoing, social, and assertive.
The focus on extroversion is understandable, says Lionel Robert, with the University of Michigan, given that robots are being sold to do skill-based tasks that require an appearance of positivity and confidence, like customer service.
Neurotic traits — such as anxiety, worries about performance, plus fear and sadness — haven't been seen as useful.
"For example, imagine if your autonomous vehicle was neurotic," says Robert. "That's not a trait you'd be happy with."
People don't want to pay a lot of money for a robot car that sounds unsure, he says.
Still, if you're building a robot comedian, a little neuroticism might be helpful.
And robots can sometimes irritate people by agreeing with everything they say or being relentlessly polite, points out Sooyeon Jeong of Purdue University.
She recalls one student who was using a chatbot as a sounding board and found it way too cheerful.
"He was getting frustrated," she recalls. "He really wanted to use the agent to kind of practice some of the difficult conversations or social interactions he would have in the real world."
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