TY - JOUR
T1 - Cheery companions or serious assistants? Role and demeanor congruity as predictors of robot attraction and use intentions among senior citizens
AU - Sundar, S. Shyam
AU - Jung, Eun Hwa
AU - Waddell, T. Franklin
AU - Kim, Ki Joon
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the KORUS Tech Program (KT-2010-SW-AP-FSO-0004) as part of the International Collaborative R&D Program of the Korea Ministry of Science, ICT and Planning (MSIP). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 64th annual conference of International Communication Association.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Using a robot designed for senior citizens in a retirement home setting, an experiment (N=51) was conducted to investigate whether variations in the role (companion vs. assistant) and social demeanor (playful vs. serious) of a robot influence senior citizens’ perceptions of the robot's social attractiveness, intelligence, anxiety, and eeriness. Results show that assistant robots are perceived as more socially attractive and intelligent when their demeanor is playful rather than serious. In addition, companion robots are evaluated as less anxious and less eerie when their personality is serious rather than playful. Finally, companion robots with a serious demeanor have a positive indirect effect on robot use intentions via heightened perceptions of intelligence and social attractiveness, while assistant robots with a playful demeanor have a positive indirect effect on intentions via lower perceptions of anxiety. The implications of our findings for human-robot interaction and the design of socially assistive robotics are discussed.
AB - Using a robot designed for senior citizens in a retirement home setting, an experiment (N=51) was conducted to investigate whether variations in the role (companion vs. assistant) and social demeanor (playful vs. serious) of a robot influence senior citizens’ perceptions of the robot's social attractiveness, intelligence, anxiety, and eeriness. Results show that assistant robots are perceived as more socially attractive and intelligent when their demeanor is playful rather than serious. In addition, companion robots are evaluated as less anxious and less eerie when their personality is serious rather than playful. Finally, companion robots with a serious demeanor have a positive indirect effect on robot use intentions via heightened perceptions of intelligence and social attractiveness, while assistant robots with a playful demeanor have a positive indirect effect on intentions via lower perceptions of anxiety. The implications of our findings for human-robot interaction and the design of socially assistive robotics are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2016.08.006
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2016.08.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84986893034
VL - 97
SP - 88
EP - 97
JO - International Journal of Human Computer Studies
JF - International Journal of Human Computer Studies
SN - 1071-5819
ER -