Social robot acceptance in Entertainment and Hospitality Services
(A2020-63377)

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

KEYWORDS

Social-robot acceptance; Entertainment; Stereotypes

ABSTRACT

In recent years social robots have been used in entertainment and hospitality services. Although the increasing deployment, there is a need to understand to what extent customers accept this new technology. Based on theories of technology acceptance, this study proposes to validate an adaptation of the Almere model for social robots in an entertainment environment. In addition, this study examines the effect that a robot playing a gender role (male vs. female) combined with personality (collaborative vs. competitive) has on the degree of social-robot acceptance. In an experiment, 113 participants played a game with the assistance of a TIAGo robot while it took on each of the four roles (combination of gender and personality). Findings show that the Almere model adapts in six of the ten constructs to the change of context. With respect to the effects of gender and personality stereotypes, these discoveries indicate that stereotypes do not influence symmetrically, but that the female role predominates in the degree of acceptance of social robots.