Children are far more susceptible than adults to being influenced by robots, according to a study. Researchers at the University of Plymouth used a technique developed in the 1950s to determine how much influence robots can have on people's opinions. The Asch paradigm was originally used to describe how people will usually follow the opinions of others, even if they are clearly wrong. "People often follow the opinions of others and we've known for a long time that it is hard to resist taking over views and opinions of people around us," said robotics professor Tony Belpaeme, who led the study alongside Plymouth researcher Anna Vollmer. "We know this as conformity. But as robots will soon be found in the home and the workplace, we were wondering if people would conform to robots. "What our results show is that adults do not conform to what the robots are saying.