  Aiming to explore the impact of politeness on Human robot interaction, this
study tested varying levels of politeness in a human robot collaborative table
setting task. Polite behaviour was designed based on the politeness rules of
Lakoff. A graphical user interface was developed for the interaction with the
robot offering three levels of politeness, and an experiment was conducted with
20 older adults and 30 engineering students. Results indicated that the quality
of interaction was influenced by politeness as participants significantly
preferred the polite mode of the robot. However, the older adults were less
able to distinguish between the three politeness levels. Future studies should
thus include pre experiment training to increase the familiarity of the older
adults with robotic technology. These studies should also include other
permutations of the politeness rules of Lakoff.
