“Evil” robots motivate a person to achieve better results.

Psychological studies have demonstrated a link between the level of cognitive abilities of people and the fact that the “evil” or “good” robot exercised control over their actions. It turned out that the "evil" machines motivate to achieve the best results.

During the experiment, 58 people were asked to perform the Stroop test. The method of research involves the display on the screen of words in different colors, the subject must name exactly what color a particular word is printed. The test is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. The main difficulties begin to arise when, for example, the word "blue" appears in the picture, highlighted in red letters, or if the "yellow" is highlighted in purple.

An interesting feature is the fact that people successfully pass the Stroop test, being in a stressful state or in a state that forces them to fight with competitors.

Initially, the subjects performed tasks independently, after several attempts a robot could join them. He acted as an observer and was managed by external experts. Moreover, before starting the research, the participants in the experiment had the opportunity to assess how friendly a machine was towards them. Positive robots were actively involved in the dialogue, showing interest and curiosity, negative characters, on the contrary, responded either with a blacklist or with malicious comments. After the initial dialogue, the robot remained in the room and just watched the test.

As a result, it turned out that the presence of a “good” partner had no effect on the test results, while the “evil” motivated the person to improve performance. Thus, robots have proven the fact that the presence of overt or covert competitors can significantly affect the effectiveness of certain processes carried out by man, even in cases where competitors are not directly involved in the fight.