Robots at Work: People Prefer-and Forgive-Service Robots With Perceived Feelings

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yam, Kai Chi; Bigman, Yochanan E.; Tang, Pok Man; Ilies, Remus; De Cremer, David; Soh, Harold; Gray, Kurt
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Yale University; Texas A&M University System; National University of Singapore; National University of Singapore; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000834
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1557-1572
• 关键词: service robots; mind perception; anthropomorphism

摘要

Organizations are increasingly relying on service robots to improve efficiency, but these robots often make mistakes, which can aggravate customers and negatively affect organizations. How can organizations mitigate the frontline impact of these robotic blunders? Drawing from theories of anthropomorphism and mind perception, we propose that people evaluate service robots more positively when they are anthropomorphized and seem more humanlike-capable of both agency (the ability to think) and experience (the ability to feel). We further propose that in the face of robot service failures, increased perceptions of experience should attenuate the negative effects of service failures, whereas increased perceptions of agency should amplify the negative effects of service failures on customer satisfaction. In a field study conducted in the world's first robot-staffed hotel (Study 1), we find that anthropomorphism generally leads to higher customer satisfaction and that perceived experience, but not agency, mediates this effect. Perceived experience (but not agency) also interacts with robot service failures to predict customer satisfaction such that high levels of perceived experience attenuate the negative impacts of service failures on customer satisfaction. We replicate these results in a lab experiment with a service robot (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.