The influence of people’s culture and prior experiences with Aibo on their attitude towards robots | AI & SOCIETY Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

The influence of people’s culture and prior experiences with Aibo on their attitude towards robots

  • Open Forum
  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents a cross-cultural study on peoples’ negative attitude toward robots. 467 participants from seven different countries filled in the negative attitude towards robots scale survey which consists of 14 questions in three clusters: attitude towards the interaction with robots, attitude towards social influence of robots and attitude towards emotions in interaction with robots. Around one half of them were recruited at local universities and the other half was approached through Aibo online communities. The participants’ cultural background had a significant influence on their attitude and the Japanese were not as positive as stereotypically assumed. The US participants had the most positive attitude, while participants from Mexico had the most negative attitude. The participants from the online community were more positive towards robots than those not involved. Previous experience in interacting with Aibo also had a positive effect, but owning an Aibo did not improve their attitude.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
¥17,985 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Japan)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

  • Bartneck C, Forlizzi J (2004) A design-centred framework for social human–robot interaction. In: Proceedings of the Ro-Man2004, Kurashiki

  • Bartneck C, Okada M (2001) Robotic user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the human and computer conference (HC2001), Aizu

  • Breazeal C (2003) Designing sociable robots. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Breemen AJN v, Yan X, Meerbeek B (2005) iCat: an animated user-interface robot with personality. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on autonomous agents and multi agent systems, Utrecht

  • Burgard W, Cremers AB, Fox D, Hahnel D, Lakemeyer G, Schulz D et al (1998) The interactive museum tour-guide robot. In: Proceedings of the artificial intelligence/innovative applications of artificial intelligence, Madison

  • Cameron J (Writer) (1984) The Terminator [DVD]. In: J. Daly (Producer): MGM

  • Fong T, Nourbakhsh I, Dautenhahn K (2003) A survey of socially interactive robots. Rob Auton Syst 42:143–166

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Gemperle F, DiSalvo C, Forlizzi J, Yonkers W (2003) The Hug: a new form for communication. In: Proceedings of the designing the user experience (DUX2003), New York

  • Hirsch T, Forlizzi J, Hyder E, Goetz J, Stroback J, Kurtz C (2000) The ELDeR project: social and emotional factors in the design of eldercare technologies. In: Proceedings of the conference on universal usability, Arlington

  • Hofstede GH (1991) Cultures and organizations: software of the mind London. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Intini J (2005) Robo-sapiens rising: Sony, Honda and others are spending millions to put a robot in your house. http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/science/article.jsp?content = 20050718_109126_109126

  • Kanda T, Hirano T, Eaton D, Ishigur H (2004) Interactive robots as social partners and peer tutors for children: a field trial. Human computer interaction. Spec Issues Human Robot Interact 19(1–2):61–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan F (2004) Who is afraid of the humanoid? Investigating cultural differences in the acceptance of robots. Int J Human Robot 1(3):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NEC (2001). PaPeRo. from http://www.incx.nec.co.jp/robot/PaPeRo/english/p_index.html

  • Nomura T, Kanda T, Suzuki T (2004) Experimental investigationi into influence of negative attitudes toward robots on human-robot interaction. In: Proceedings of the 3rd workshop on social intelligence design (SID2004), Twente

  • Nomura T, Kanda T, Suzuki T, Kato K (2005) People’s assumptions about robots: investigation of their relationships with attitudes and emotions toward robots. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international workshop on robot and human communication (ROMAN2005), Nashville

  • Okada M (2001, 2001) Muu: artificial creatures as an embodied interface. In: Proceedings of the ACM Siggraph 2001, New Orleans

  • Raub AC (1981) Correlates of computer anxiety in college students. PhD Thesis, University of Pennsylvania

  • Sloterdijk P (2002) L’Heure du Crime et le Temps de l’Oeuvre d’Art: Calman-Levy

  • Sony (1999). Aibo. From http://www.aibo.com

  • United Nations (2005). World robotics 2005. United Nations Publication, Geneva

  • Wachowski A, Wachowski L (Writer) (2003) Animatrix

  • Wada K, Shibata T, Saito T, Tanie K (2004) Effects of robot-assisted activity for elderly people and nurses at a day service center. Proc IEEE 92(11):1780–1788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WowWee (2005) Robosapien. http://www.wowwee.com/robosapien/robo1/robomain.html

  • Yamamoto S (1983) Why the Japanese have no allergy towards robots. L’esprit d’aujourd’hui (Gendai no Esupuri), 187:136–143

    Google Scholar 

  • ZMP (2005) Nuvo. http://www.nuvo.jp/nuvo_home_e.html

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jodi Forlizzi, Oscar Mayora Ibarra, Hu Jun and Juliane Reichenbach, Kennsuke Kato, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Sarah Woods for their generous help in gathering the data. In addition, we would like to thank Chi Ho Chan, David Cournapeau, Nathalia Romero Herrera, Alice Jager, Roberto Lopez and Machi Takahachi for their efforts in translating the questionnaire. This study was supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Christoph Bartneck

  2. Graduate School of Sociology, Toyo University, 5-28-20, Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo , 112-8606, Japan

    Tomohiro Suzuki

  3. IRC, Department 2, ATR, 2-2, Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto , 619-0288, Japan

    Takayuki Kanda

  4. Department of Media Informatics, Ryukoku University, 1-5, Yokotani, SetaOhe-Cho, Otsu, Shiga, 520-2194, Japan

    Tatsuya Nomura

Authors
  1. Christoph Bartneck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tomohiro Suzuki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Takayuki Kanda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tatsuya Nomura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Bartneck.

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 6
figure 6figure 6

Screenshot of the questionnaire

Full size image

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bartneck, C., Suzuki, T., Kanda, T. et al. The influence of people’s culture and prior experiences with Aibo on their attitude towards robots. AI & Soc 21, 217–230 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-006-0052-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-006-0052-7

Keywords