Attitudes towards robots suitability for various jobs as affected robot appearance

Abstract

An opinion survey of 878 college students examined attitudes about the suitability of robots for various occupations in society and how these attitudes varied by the robots’ appearance. Factor analyses revealed three primary attitudes: Robot-Liking, Robotphobia and Cyber-Dystopianism, and three occupational niches: social-companionship, surveillance and personal assistants. Attitudes varied depending on subjects’ gender, religion, perceived competence with technologies and engagement with virtual reality environments and avatars. The analysis of relationships between subjects’ attitudes and perception of suitable occupations indicated that Robot-Liking is positively related with social companionship and surveillance occupations, whereas Robotphobia is negatively correlated with the three occupational niches.