More Than Binary: Transgender and Nonbinary Perspectives on Human Robot Interaction

Previous research has shown that gendered robot designs prompt users to carry biases from human-human interaction into human-robot interaction. Yet avoiding gendered designs in human-robot interaction may be infeasible, as humans readily gender robots based on factors like name, voice, and pronouns. One solution to this challenge could be to use an intentionally agender robot design, that is explicitly presented as agender in the way that some humans identify. Yet it is unclear whether trans, nonbinary, or otherwise gender nonconforming people would view this approach to be a positive and inclusive step in robot design, or whether they would view it as appropriative or otherwise problematic. In fact, little is known about trans and nonbinary perspectives on human-robot interaction, which has not been previously studied. In this work, we thus present the first study of trans and nonbinary perspectives on robot design, with a particular focus on perceptions of robot gender and agender robot design. Our results suggest that trans and nonbinary users readily accept robots depicted as agender, and view this as a largely positive design strategy that could help normalize non-cisgender identities. Yet our results also highlight key risks posed by this design strategy, including risks of backlash, caricature, and dehumanization, and the ways these risks are moderated by a number of political and economic factors.