Acceptance of social robot and its challenges: From privacy calculus perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine human–robot interaction (HRI) from the perspective of security, privacy, as well as social and personal norms. This study also strives to investigate users' hedonic and utilitarian attitudes towards using social robots. A social robot is a physical humanoid robot that communicates and interacts with humans and other devices. Social robots follow social rules and behaviors which make them different from other kinds of robots. They often behave like social partners to humans and have features such as eye-gaze, speech recognition, auto-gestures, and so on. Social robots use different types of sensitive data from the users which could pose security challenges and privacy threats. Not many studies have dealt with human–robot interactions (HRI) from security, privacy, social norms, and personal norms perspectives. With the existing literature as well as privacy calculus, motivational theory, and theory of planned behavior (TPB), a model has been developed conceptually, which was then validated using a sample of 403 users contemplating using social robots in the coming days. The study found that both users' hedonic and utilitarian attitudes impact significantly and positively their usage of social robots.