TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding Cultural Preferences for Social Robots
T2 - A study in German and Arab communities
AU - Korn, Oliver
AU - Akalin, Neziha
AU - Gouveia, Ruben
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Publisher Copyright:
©2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - This article presents a study of cultural differences affecting the acceptance and design preferences of social robots. Based on a survey with 794 participants from Germany and the three Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, we discuss how culture influences the preferences for certain attributes. We look at social roles, abilities and appearance, emotional awareness and interactivity of social robots, as well as the attitude toward automation. Preferences were found to differ not only across cultures, but also within countries with similar cultural backgrounds. Our findings also show a nuanced picture of the impact of previously identified culturally variable factors, such as attitudes toward traditions and innovations. While the participants' perspectives toward traditions and innovations varied, these factors did not fully account for the cultural variations in their perceptions of social robots. In conclusion, we believe that more real-life practices emerging from the situated use of robots should be investigated. Besides focusing on the impact of broader cultural values such as those associated with religion and traditions, future studies should examine how users interact, or avoid interaction, with robots within specific contexts of use.
AB - This article presents a study of cultural differences affecting the acceptance and design preferences of social robots. Based on a survey with 794 participants from Germany and the three Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, we discuss how culture influences the preferences for certain attributes. We look at social roles, abilities and appearance, emotional awareness and interactivity of social robots, as well as the attitude toward automation. Preferences were found to differ not only across cultures, but also within countries with similar cultural backgrounds. Our findings also show a nuanced picture of the impact of previously identified culturally variable factors, such as attitudes toward traditions and innovations. While the participants' perspectives toward traditions and innovations varied, these factors did not fully account for the cultural variations in their perceptions of social robots. In conclusion, we believe that more real-life practices emerging from the situated use of robots should be investigated. Besides focusing on the impact of broader cultural values such as those associated with religion and traditions, future studies should examine how users interact, or avoid interaction, with robots within specific contexts of use.
KW - cross-cultural study
KW - cultural robotics
KW - Human-robot interaction
KW - social robots
KW - technology acceptance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106730296&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3439717
DO - 10.1145/3439717
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106730296
VL - 10
JO - ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
JF - ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
SN - 2573-9522
IS - 2
M1 - 12
ER -