Achieving homophily, or association based on similarity, between a human user and a robot holds a promise of improved perception and task performance. However, no previous studies that address homophily via ethnic similarity with robots exist. In this paper, we discuss the difficulties of evoking ethnic cues in a robot, as opposed to a virtual agent, and an approach to overcome those difficulties based on using ethnically salient behaviors. We outline our methodology for selecting and evaluating such behaviors, and culminate with a study that evaluates our hypotheses of the possibility of ethnic attribution of a robot character through verbal and nonverbal behaviors and of achieving the homophily effect.
Anthropology has been a traditional source of qualitative data on behaviors observed in particular social contexts, presented as ethnographies. Such ethnographies produce descriptions of the communities in terms of : the differences between the ethnographer's own expectations and what he observes @cite_10 . For example, a university faculty member in the US may find it unusual the first time a foreign student addresses her as professor.'' The term of address would be a rich point between the professor's and the student's ways of using the language in the context. Note that this rich point can be a cue to the professor that the student is a foreigner, but may not be sufficient to further specify the student's ethnic identity.
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Ethnography Reconstructed: The Stranger at Fifteen. The Concepts of Fieldwork. Getting Started. Who Are You to Do This? Ethnography. Beginning Fieldwork. Narrowing the Focus. Informal to Formal: Some Examples. The Ethnographic Research Proposal. Ethnography in Context.