Research summary on the impact of service robots on consumer psychology:

• Customers perceive service robots more positively when they are humanized and possess human-like qualities

• Agency (the ability to think) and experience (the ability to feel) influence human social cognition, and make robots appear more humanized

• In the face of robotic service failures, increased perceptions of experience attenuate the negative effects of the failure

• However, the data indicates that, though predicted, increased perceptions of agency do not amplify the negative effects of the failure. Therefore, companies harnessing this emerging technology should focus on humanizing service robots and increasing their ability to feel (experience)

During a TED Talk in 2017, the world was introduced to “Spot”. The audience marveled as Boston Dynamics CEO, Marc Raibert demonstrated the impressive capabilities of this four-legged robot.  

Two years later, customers could fill out a form and rent Spot, “an agile mobile robot that navigates the terrain with unprecedented mobility, allowing you to automate routine inspection tasks and capture data safely, accurately, and frequently.” In 2020, Spot went on sale for $75,000. 

This is just one example of the incredible pace with which we, as a society, are adopting robotics into our lives. The impact of this increasing automation has been largely positive, providing lower prices and more consistent quality. However, there is one business domain in which people loath encountering automation—customer service.

Kai Chi Yam, Yochanan E. Bigman, Pok Man Tang, Remus Ilies, David De Cremer, Harold Soh, and Kurt Gray, researchers from Singapore and the US, set out to better understand how people react to and interact with service robots, defined as robots that “perform useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding industrial automation applications.”

Theoretical Background: The Psychology of Humanization

The researchers drew on the psychology of humanization to do so. 

Theories on social cognition (e.g. mind perception) argue that both human and nonhuman entities are perceived along two dimensions: agency (i.e., the ability to think, plan, and act volitionally) and experience (i.e., the ability to feel emotions, pain, and pleasure). While human adults are seen as having both high agency and high experience, robots are typically seen as having low experience and moderate levels of agency. This impacts how humans treat non-human entities like service robots. 

The researchers hypothesize that through the process of humanization, or anthropomorphism, defined as “imbuing the imagined or real behavior of nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, and emotions” service robots will generally be perceived more positively by customers because anthropomorphism enables individuals to humanize service robots by imbuing them with both agency and experience.

Humanizing service robots can serve as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, imbuing service robots with experience allows customers to forgive and sympathize with robots when they fail, thus lowering their dissatisfaction with robot service failures. On the other hand, imbuing service robots with agency amplifies the perceived responsibility of service robots when they fail, thus increasing customers’ dissatisfaction with robot service failures.

Methodology: Testing The Effects of Humanization on Customer Satisfaction

The researchers recruited ~200 participants who were staying in a hotel in Japan. The hotel had 200 rooms and only 11 human employees as most daily operations were handled by non-human robot employees. Participants were checked into the hotel by the robots and asked to complete a survey. The survey measured anthropomorphism, perceived agency and experience, and demographic information. At the end of their stay, the participants completed a second survey measuring robot service failures and customer satisfaction. 

In more detail, the anthropomorphism check was conducted through a simple writing task. The experimental condition was prompted to describe their check-in experience with the robots while thinking about them as human-like, while the control condition was asked to describe their check-in experience with no mention of human-like characteristics in the prompt. Perceived agency and experience, robot service failures, and customer satisfaction were measured using validated questionnaires.

The researchers then replicated the same experiment in a controlled laboratory environment. 

Results and Implications of Humanizing Service Robots on Consumer Psychology

The results revealed that imbuing service robots with agency and experience through humanization (giving them human-like qualities: assigning names to robots, programming robots with a human voice, and putting a face on robots) generally increases customer satisfaction and that this effect is primarily driven by experience rather than agency. This is a core insight for consumer psychology, especially as reliance on technology during customer interactions increases.

Most notably, increased perceptions of experience can attenuate the negative effects of robot service failures but increased perceptions of agency do not amplify the negative effects of service failures. This may be especially relevant in consumer experiences which blend physical and digital elements.

By demonstrating the positive effects of anthropomorphism and the associated underlying mechanisms (i.e., agency and experience) on customer satisfaction toward service robots, this study has strong practical implications for organizations looking to leverage this emerging technology. This gives marketers much to consider as they debate the impact of automation on customer’s perceptions of their brand.

No one knows with certainty how robots will shape the future workplace but this study can surely help companies mitigate costs of robot failure should they like to transition to automated customer service.

Photo by Andy Kelly via UnSplash

References for Consumer Psychology and The Influence of Robotic v Human Labor

Wakefield, J. (2019) Boston Dynamics robot dog Spot goes on sale, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49823945

Ackerman, E. (2020) Boston Dynamics’ Spot Robot Dog Now Available for $74,500, IEEE Spectrum

Yam, K. C., Bigman, Y. E., Tang, P. M., Ilies, R., De Cremer, D., Soh, H., & Gray, K. (2020). Robots at work: People prefer—And forgive—Service robots with perceived feelings. The Journal of Applied Psychology.