Contents I. Introduction
Robots with natural language ability are increasingly entering society and performing a range of tasks requiring social skills. Some robots serve as companions for the elderly, as teaching assistants, or even in the role of behavioral counselor [1]. On this last point, the studies which have examined the use of robots as a couples or behavioral counselor have shown that robots may serve a beneficial role in this capacity [2]. Given the emerging use of robots as counselors, two important questions for human-robot interaction (HRI) are: (1) to what extent will people reveal personal information to a robot [1] [3], and (2) does the appearance of the robot affect the decision to self-disclosure? Literature describing the uncanny valley effect [4], suggests that appearance should matter for self-disclosure and thus robot appearance would be an interesting variable to include in a study on disclosure of personal information to a robot.
