How do Consumers’ Gender and Rational Thinking Affect the Acceptance of Entertainment Social Robots?

International Journal of Social Robotics https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-021-00845-y How do Consumers’ Gender and Rational Thinking Affect the Acceptance of Entertainment Social Robots? Santiago Forgas-Coll1 · Ruben Huertas-Garcia1 · Antonio Andriella2 · Guillem Alenyà2 Accepted: 19 November 2021 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract In recent years, the rapid ageing of the population, a longer life expectancy and elderly people’s desire to live independently are social changes that put pressure on healthcare systems. This context is boosting the demand for companion and entertainment social robots on the market and, consequently, producers and distributors are interested in knowing how these social robots are accepted by consumers. Based on technology acceptance models, a parsimonious model is proposed to estimate the intention to use this new advanced social robot technology and, in addition, an analysis is performed to determine how consumers’ gender and rational thinking condition the precedents of the intention to use. The results show that gender differences are more important than suggested by the literature. While women gave greater social influence and perceived enjoyment as the main motives for using a social robot, in contrast, men considered their perceived usefulness to be the principal reason and, as a differential argument, the ease of use. Regarding the reasoning system, the most significant differences occurred between heuristic individuals, who stated social influence as the main reason for using a robot, and the more rational consumers, who gave ease of use as a differential argument. Keywords Social-robot acceptance · Entertainment · Gender differences · Reasoning system · Dual-process theory 1 Introduction A robot has been defined as “an autonomous machine capable of sensing its environment, carrying out computations to make decisions, and performing actions in the real world” [1]. Although designing robots for service use began a long time ago [2, 3], the prototypes developed were quite rigid, as they were oriented towards following rules and individuals had to adapt to the machine [4]. It was not until the last decade that, thanks to the developments in artificial intelligence and B Santiago Forgas-Coll Ruben Huertas-Garcia Antonio Andriella Guillem Alenyà 1 Business Department, University of Barcelona, Avda. Diagonal, 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain 2 Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial CSIC-UPC, C/Llorens i Artigas 4-6, 08028 Barcelona, Spain machine learning algorithms, robotics has progressed in a significant way in terms of increasing the apparent autonomy of robots [5] and with a shift in focus towards social robotics [4]. Social robotics aims to provide robots with a simple and intuitive interface that allows them to deal with the complexity required to carry out interactions with humans. Pillinger [6], completing Weber’s [4] proposal, considered that three types of relationships with social robots currently predominate: between caregiver and child/baby, between owner and his/her pet, and with sex robots. All these technological advances have coincided in time with significant demographic changes, derived from a rapid ageing of the population, a longer life expectancy and the elderly having an increasing desire to lead an independent life [7]. Social changes that put strong pressure on the healthcare system and are boosting the demand for animatronics capable of fulfilling assistive and entertainment functions. The global market for these robots is expected to reach USD 3.71 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 23.06% from 2018 to 2023. Entertainment and companion robots, designed for leisure purposes, would be close to the relationship classified by Weber as owner-pet. These robots can interact with people 123 International Journal of Social Robotics by singing, dancing, playing games, facilitating communication with relatives and, in general, preventing loneliness [8]. In addition, they can also be used in education, information and communication, hospitality, and health and social care [9]. An example is the robot "Spencer", used by KLM to guide passengers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport [10]. Acceptance of social robots involves a new experience for consumers, which is redefined through human–robot interaction (HRI). HRI is an interdisciplinary field of study covering robotics, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, psychology, ethology (part of biology) and sociology [4] dedicated to understanding, designing and evaluating robotic systems, exploring the human factors that make it possible to achieve quality relationships and, ultimately, accomplish a symbiosis between humans and robots [11]. If the performance of industrial robots is measured by their efficiency, the success of service robots depends on users’ satisfaction [12]. Therefore, before launching a social robot for entertainment, it is essential to understand the variables that induce greater acceptance [13]. To analyse the process of acceptance of new technologies, models derived from social psychology have been used. One of the first was the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis [14], which is based on the theories that prevailed at that time, that is, the Theory of Reasoned Action [15] and the Social Cognitive Theory [16]. As new technologies progressed, so did the theory and users’ familiarity with their use. Therefore, new models, such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), attempted to respond to the new environmental challenges [17, 18]. This model, developed to accommodate a more advanced state of technological development, of an eclectic nature, achieved greater predictive capacity. Therefore, some researchers have considered UTAUT a more integrative proposal than TAM and other theories of technology adoption [19]. However, although they are models that are intended for generalist purposes, their application in the field of robotics is complex, since robotic technology is far more sophisticated than that required by other technological devices [20, 21]. Indeed some researchers have argued that robots should be considered a new technological genre [22]. Only a few studies have tested technological acceptance models for the case of social robots. The best known is the Almere model, which is an adaptation of the UTAUT model to study the acceptance of social robots in elderly-care contexts [23]. And, more recently, other researchers have tested an extension of the Almere model in health-care settings and what they have called RAM-care [24]. Although these models offer useful information about the factors that influence the acceptance of social robots, the use of excessively artificial scenarios makes it difficult to generalise and adapt them to other contexts. Many studies use Wizard-of-Oz (robot manipulated by an operator, not autonomous) settings [23, 123 25] or video images [26, 27] that show interactions (...truncated)