Human–Robot Similarity and Willingness to Work With a Robotic Co-worker
You, S. and Robert, L. P. (2018). Human-Robot Similarity and Willingness to Work with a Robotic Co-Worker, Proceedings of the 13th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction, March 5–8, 2018, Chicago, IL, USA. DOI: 10.1145/3171221.3171281.
10 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2019 Last revised: 4 Mar 2020
Date Written: December 30, 2018
Abstract
Organizations now face a new challenge of encouraging their employees to work alongside robots. In this paper, we address this problem by investigating the impacts of human–robot similarity, trust in a robot, and the risk of physical danger on individuals’ willingness to work with a robot and their willingness to work with a robot over a human co-worker. We report the results from an online experimental study involving 200 participants. Results showed that human–robot similarity promoted trust in a robot, which led to willingness to work with robots and ultimately willingness to work with a robot over a human co-worker. However, the risk of danger moderated not only the positive link between the surface-level similarity and trust in a robot, but also the link between intention to work with the robot and willingness to work with a robot over a human coworker. We discuss several implications for the theory of human–robot interaction and design of robots.
Keywords: human–robot teamwork, robot adoption, intention to work with robots, trust, similarity, deep-level diversity, surface-level diversity; human robot interaction
JEL Classification: O32, O33, M15
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation