“Briefly Entertaining but Pointless”: Perceived Benefits & Risks of Social Robots in the Home

Abstract

In contrast to the adoption of personal assistants, social robots have yet to break into the domestic market. Several manufacturers have introduced and quickly retracted their social robots for the home. We report on a survey study (N = 50) to understand potential users’ perceptions towards these social robots. Participants were presented with videos of three domestic social robots and subsequently provided their perception of these in terms of perceived benefits, attraction, privacy risk, usage intention, and capabilities. While participants perceived hedonic and utilitarian benefits, we found a low intention of future adoption of these devices. Further, our findings showed that owners of personal assistants perceived significantly higher hedonic benefits, fewer privacy risks, and higher intention to use domestic social robots. Our work provides an initial step towards understanding perceptions towards social robots and how previous exposure to domestic AI shapes users’ perceptions.