Children’s Intention to Adopt Social Robots: A Model of its Distal and Proximal Predictors

Abstract

Social robots have increasingly been entering children’s daily lives and their domestic environment. Whereas various studies have shown children’s enthusiasm towards social robots in, for example, an educational context, little is known about children’s acceptance—or rejection—of domestic social robots. This paper aimed at filling this research gap by developing a model of children’s intention to adopt a social robot at home, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. Relying on data from a survey among 570 children aged eight to nine, we found that, before having ever interacted with the robot in real life, 82% of the children were willing to adopt the robot at home. Children’s adoption intention was mainly predicted by hedonic attitudes and social norms, as well as by their general attitude towards robots, which was linked to adoption both directly and indirectly through hedonic attitudes and social norms. Our findings suggest that entertainment-related and normative considerations drive children’s intention to adopt a domestic social robot.