In the company of robots: Views of acceptability of robots in social settings

Abstract

We draw on computer mediated communication (CMC) theories to argue that users’ earlier experiences with online social environments tend to attribute human-like characteristics to robots. Specifically, when users engage in socially-charged electronic environments to interact and communicate electronically with others, they find ways to overcome the relative lack of cues to adapt to the medium. We explore whether users who have more experience using information and communication technologies (ICT), are more likely to recognize humanlike cues in robots. The findings show that avatar engagement and sense of online community have a strong effect on robots acceptance and recognition of human-like characteristics; this is even after accounting for predictors expected to affect attitudes toward robots such as religion, gender, age and robots’ appearance. The chapter ends by exploring the implications of this research for greater social acceptability of robots in various human domains.