Abstract
AbstractThe idea of sex with robots seems to fascinate the general public, raising both enthusiasm and revulsion. We ran two experimental studies (Ns = 172 and 260) where we compared people’s reactions to variants of stories about a person visiting a bordello. Our results show that paying for the services of a sex robot is condemned less harshly than paying for the services of a human sex worker, especially if the payer is married. We have for the first time experimentally confirmed that people are somewhat unsure about whether using a sex robot while in a committed monogamous relationship should be considered as infidelity. We also shed light on the psychological factors influencing attitudes toward sex robots, including disgust sensitivity and interest in science fiction. Our results indicate that sex with a robot is indeed genuinely considered as sex, and a sex robot is genuinely seen as a robot; thus, we show that standard research methods on sexuality and robotics are also applicable in research on sex robotics.
Highlights
Many kinds of robots are introduced into society at an accelerating rate
The newly introduced third factor, gender of the client, had only a single effect on our DV3, where male clients’ character in general was less condemned for the use of sex services compared to female clients; in a full factorial three-way ANOVA there were no interesting interaction effects, so the client gender factor was collapsed and only the other two original factors were analyzed fully
We replicated the main effect of marital status on DV1 and DV3: single people were condemned less than married people whether they have sex with robot or human sex workers
Summary
Sex and other types of companion robots are in development and seem to fascinate the general public [1,2]. Most new robots introduced to the Several surveys have measured people’s attitudes toward sex robots. These surveys have focused on people’s expectations and fears concerning sex robots [4], the likelihood of people themselves using or buying a sex robot (for an overview, see [5]), and whether people consider using a sex robot to be infidelity or “cheating” [6]. Gender and age differences have been found across studies focusing on attitudes toward robots in general. To our knowledge no previous study has focused on the psychological factors underlying attitudes toward sex robots
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
