How does robot gender affect men’s and women’s technological acceptance?
(A2022-106481)

AUTHORS

Rubén Huertas-Garcia, University of Barcelona – UB; Santiago Forgas-Coll , University of Barcelona; Antonio Andriella, Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial CSIC-UPC; Guillem Alenyà , Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial CSIC-UPC

ABSTRACT

Since the appearance of Covid-19, the use of social robots to deliver front-office services has undergone an improvement. Although gendered robots have started to be employed, it is not clear whether this can serve as a segmentation criterion, i.e. whether it will be accepted to a greater or lesser extent by men and women. To explore this, a 2×2 (robot gender by human sex) experiment was set up, where a social robot displaying gender attributes helped volunteers solve a task. Afterwards, their technological acceptance was assessed with a derived UTAUT model. Findings reveal that men and women paid attention to different drivers when they considered accepting a social robot providing a front-office service. Moreover, the gender of the robot also plays a role, suggesting that it makes sense to consider segmenting the market by sex.