Building on the notion that people respond to media as if they were real, switching off a robot which exhibits lifelike behavior implies an interesting situation. In an experimental lab study with a 2x2 between-subjects-design (N = 85), people were given the choice to switch off a robot with which they had just interacted. The style of the interaction was either social (mimicking human behavior) or functional (displaying machinelike behavior). Additionally, the robot either voiced an objection against being switched off or it remained silent. Results show that participants rather let the robot stay switched on when the robot objected. After the functional interaction, people evaluated the robot as less likeable, which in turn led to a reduced stress experience after the switching off situation. Furthermore, individuals hesitated longest when they had experienced a functional interaction in combination with an objecting robot. This unexpected result might be due to the fact that the impression people had formed based on the task-focused behavior of the robot conflicted with the emotional nature of the objection.

This methodological article discusses the influence of individuals' beliefs about their abilities to use and control robotic technologies on their evaluation of human-robot-interaction (HRI). We conducted three surveys to develop and validate a new measure of Self-Efficacy in HRI. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a twofactorial (factors perceived self-efficacy and loss of control) solution with good reliability (Study 1, n = 201). Confirmatory factor analysis did not confirm the two-factorial structure. Instead, it revealed a better model fit for a one-factorial solution for a German (Study 2, n = 450) and an English version (Study 3, n = 209) of the scale with good indices for convergent and divergent validity. The final questionnaire with 18 items was used in two experimental studies (Study 4, n = 120). We found that interacting with a robot increased self-efficacy and that individual changes in self-efficacy predict more positive evaluations within a student sample, but not a sample of seniors. Interviews with seniors from this study suggested shortening the scale, and revising the instructions and answering scheme. The revised scale was again subject to confirmatory factor analysis (Study 5, n = 198), confirming the one-factorial solution for the German and the English version of the scale. We discuss potential use cases for the scale in HRI research.A. Rosenthal-von der Pütten and N. Bock not only in industry, but also in their personal lives as service robots; and 83% would use a service robot in their later years in order to be able to stay at home for a longer period of time instead of going into a care facility. However, expressing the intention to adopt a technology does not necessarily mean that people will actually accept and adopt a technology. In fact, one third of all assistive technologies are abandoned by their users [56]. Therefore, it is important to investigate at an early stage which factors might positively influence the acceptance and adoption of service and socially assistive robots. Along with technology-centered perceptions such as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, self-beliefs or, in other words, self-efficacy perceptions are a crucial factor regarding the acceptance and adoption of (new) technologies [22, 26-28, 38, 64, 65]. Humancomputer-interaction studies have repeatedly shown that increased computer self-efficacy leads to, for instance, better performance in using computers and software packages [27,35], increased ease of use [68] and system use [27,41], and early adoption of new technologies [16]. Since robots share a lot of characteristics with other technologies like smart-phones or computers, we assume that this correlation of self-efficacy and acceptance also holds true for HRI. Even though this relation has not been investigated yet, we are convinced that being able to include users' self-efficacy beliefs in HRI throughout the development and evaluation of new robotic technologies and areas of application will greatly benefit future HRI in the field. However...

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Favorable assessments of social robots are addressed in several research and development attempts because positive attitudes and intentions towards technology are regarded as a necessary prerequisite for usage. To predict a favorable evaluation, it is inevitable to understand the appraisal process and determine crucial variables that affect the evaluative and behavioral consequences of HRI. Robotic morphology has been identified as one of these variables. In the present work we expand previous work by demonstrating that capability attributions associated with robots’ morphological features explain variations in evaluations. Based on two large picture-based online studies (Study 1, n =673; Study 2, n =586) we show that robots with similar morphological features (e.g., robots with arms and grippers) can be clustered along their assigned capabilities, and that these capabilities (e.g., to manipulate objects) explain evaluations of the robots in terms of acceptance and social attributes (i.e., warmth, competence, discomfort). We discuss whether these initial assessments are relevant to live interactions and how our results can inform robot design.