Trust in Service Robot: the Role of Appearance Anthropomorphism

EasyChair Preprint 10037

Abstract

An increasing number of hotels and restaurants are using service robots as front-line employees, yet the lack of customer trust in service robots affects the service experience. To enhance trust, companies have added anthropomorphic designs for service robots. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential mechanisms and boundary conditions for the effect of the appearance anthropomorphism of service robots on customer trust. Based on interpersonal attraction theory, this study conducted five laboratory experiments to explore the process by which an artificial intelligence’s appearance anthropomorphic features affect trust. The results show that customers are more likely to trust service robots with a higher degree of appearance anthropomorphism. The anthropomorphic appearance of service robots affects three dimensions of interpersonal attraction, namely physical attraction, task attraction and social attraction, which in turn affects customer trust. In addition, customers’ technology readiness moderates the effect of service robot anthropomorphism on interpersonal attraction. This paper enriches the theoretical explanation of the design and application of service robot anthropomorphism, develops research on customer trust in service robots, and provides guidance for marketing practices of service robots.

Keyphrases: Service Robots, Trust, anthropomorphism, interpersonal attraction

@booklet{EasyChair:10037,
  author    = {Min Qin and Shuqin Li and Wei Zhu and Shanshan Qiu},
  title     = {Trust in Service Robot: the Role of Appearance Anthropomorphism},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 10037},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2023}}