by Zoë Pollock
A new experiment asked participants to judge two robots with slightly gendered features (the female had longer hair, curved lips). Tom Jacobs summarizes the unsurprising results:
Participants were more likely to view the short-haired robot in masculine terms, and suggest it was more suitable for such take-action tasks as "repairing technical devices" and "guarding a house." Conversely, the long-haired robot was perceived as more appropriate for such stereotypically feminine tasks such as household chores and caring for children and the elderly.
Vaughan Bell is intrigued by the new realm of gender politics:
The authors discuss whether it is better to create gender free robots to fight social stereotypes or whether we should create robots that comply with society’s prejudices to make them more acceptable. Personally, I’m all for genderqueer robots. That would really throw a spanner in the works. Or a works in the spanner.
(Partial view of AmalgaMATE by Michael Oswald via LikeCool)
The Dish 