Do Privacy Concerns About Social Robots Affect Use Intentions? Evidence From an Experimental Vignette Study

Abstract

While the privacy implications of social robots have been increasingly discussed and privacy-sensitive robotics is becoming a research field within human–robot interaction, little empirical research has investigated privacy concerns about robots and the effect they have on behavioral intentions. To address this gap, we present the results of an experimental vignette study that includes antecedents from the privacy, robotics, technology adoption, and trust literature. Using linear regression analysis, with the privacy-invasiveness of a fictional but realistic robot as the key manipulation, we show that privacy concerns affect use intention significantly and negatively. Compared with earlier work done through a survey, where we found a robot privacy paradox, the experimental vignette approach allows for a more realistic and tangible assessment of respondents' concerns and behavioral intentions, showing how potential robot users take into account privacy as consideration for future behavior. We contextualize our findings within broader debates on privacy and data protection with smart technologies.

Factors influencing consumers’ willingness to accept service robots: Based on online reviews of Chinese hotels

“…As the high-frequency words identified in the third part were not related to the concept of social influence, it contradicts the findings of Gursoy et al (2019) , Lu et al (2019) , Lutz and Tamò-Larrieux (2021) . One of the possible reasons is that most users do not know that hotels provide robot services before they check into hotels, the human–robot experience is out of expectation, so the social influence does not work.…”

Privacy Concerns and Information Sharing: The Perspective of the U-Shaped Curve

“…Since SNS users are usually required to provide private information on their personal profile, they normally express concerns about their privacy (Lin and Liu, 2012 ; Lutz and Tamò-Larrieux, 2021 ). The privacy risk of SNSs has been viewed as a significant factor that affects users' social interactions and usage behaviors (Hajli and Lin, 2016 ).…”

“…We address the fact that individual concerns for information privacy influence users' behaviors on SNSs. It is important to understand privacy concerns beyond binary decisions to withhold or disclose information (Osatuyi, 2015 ; Lutz and Tamò-Larrieux, 2021 ). Moreover, the theory argument in the privacy paradox and inconsistent empirical results provide us with a research objective to reconcile the inconclusive arguments.…”

No secrets between the two of us: Privacy concerns over using AI agents.

“…Based on the CASA perspective, the psychology of close relationships might offer an important means of predicting privacy concerns. Lutz and Tamò-Larrieux's (2021) research on social robots found that social influence is a key factor in privacy concerns: the degree the user anthropomorphizes social robots is directly related to the degree of privacy concerns they bear. Thus, it can be inferred that users' privacy concerns may be affected by the extent to which they evaluate an AI agent to be worthy of a social relationship.…”

“…In accordance with increasing awareness of privacy-related issues, recent studies have identified user privacy as the most prominent concern (Aleipis & Patsakis, 2017;Liao et al, 2019), although theorization is still in its infancy. While a more rigorous approach is applied in some studies to elucidate the formation and effects of user privacy (Lutz & Newlands, 2021;Lutz & Tamò-Larrieux, 2021), investigating the social nature of human-agent communication can offer a significant contribution to the related field.…”