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Perception, Acceptance, and the Social Construction of Robots—Exploratory Studies

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Abstract

In order to investigate social robots’ images and approval and/or rejection, we conducted two pre-studies and two studies combining qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first pre-study, we attempted to capture the images of robots in our minds as indicators of their social representation. The second pre-study tried to contrast the acceptance of robots in general among non-experienced users with their acceptance of specific robotic instances. In the first study, we aimed to quantitatively shed light on the relationship between the acceptance of robots. The users’ demographics and their earlier robotic experience on one hand, and the robots’ functionalities, interactional capacities and physical appearance on the other. Finally, in the last study, we aimed to track the shift from a dyadic to a triadic relationship with a robot by observing the interaction between pairs of participants and a robot in an experimental setting. Our four studies provide support for previous academic findings, but also question others opening up the floor for novel research horizons.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany

    Joachim R. Höflich & Afifa El Bayed

Authors
  1. Joachim R. Höflich
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  2. Afifa El Bayed
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Afifa El Bayed .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom

    Jane Vincent

  2. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Sakari Taipale

  3. Viale del Policlinico 147, Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, Roma, Italy

    Bartolomeo Sapio

  4. COST, Brussels, Belgium

    Giuseppe Lugano

  5. University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Leopoldina Fortunati

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Höflich, J.R., El Bayed, A. (2015). Perception, Acceptance, and the Social Construction of Robots—Exploratory Studies. In: Vincent, J., Taipale, S., Sapio, B., Lugano, G., Fortunati, L. (eds) Social Robots from a Human Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15672-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15672-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15671-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15672-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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