Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Does the Robot Have a Mind? Mind Perception and Attitudes Towards Robots Predict Use of an Eldercare Robot

  • Published:
International Journal of Social Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Robots are starting to be developed for aged care populations and some of these have been made into commercial products that have been well received. However, little is known about the psychological factors that promote acceptance or rejection of robots by older people. Finding out more about these psychological determinants of robot uptake and acceptance is the primary focus of the study described in this paper. A healthcare robot feasibility study was conducted in a retirement village. Older people (n=25) were invited to use a prototype robot with healthcare functions over a two week period. Questionnaires were completed before and after the period. It was found that residents who held significantly more positive attitudes towards robots, and perceived robot minds to have less agency (ability to do things) were more likely to use the robot. It was also found that attitudes towards robots improved over time in robot-users. Our results suggest that the cognitions older people hold about robots may influence their decisions to use robots. The study results also validate participants’ subjective self-reports of attitudes towards robots and perceptions of robot mind, against the objective measure of robot use. Interventions to foster adaptive cognitions could be developed and applied in the design, deployment and marketing of robots to promote their use and acceptance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. United Nations: World population aging 2009 (2010). www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPA2009/WPA2009-report.pdf

  2. Eaton SC (2005) Eldercare in the United States: Inadequate, inequitable, but not a lost cause. Fem Econ 11(2):37–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sargen M, Hooker RS, Cooper RA (2011) Gaps in the supply of physicians, advance practice nurses, and physician assistants. J Am Coll Surg. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2011.03.005

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bemelmans R, Gelderblom GJ, Jonker P, de Witte L (2010) Socially assistive robots in elderly care: a systematic review into effects and effectiveness. J Am Med Dir Assoc. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2010.10.002

    Google Scholar 

  5. Broadbent E, Stafford RQ, MacDonald BA (2009) Acceptance of healthcare robots for the older population. Review and future directions. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-009-0030-6

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Broekens J, Heerink M (2009) Assistive social robots in elderly care: a review. Gerontechnol. doi:10.4017%2Fgt.2009.08.02.002.00

    Google Scholar 

  7. Klein B, Cook G (2012) Emotional robotics in elder care—a comparison of findings in the UK and Germany. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on social robotics, Chengdu, China. Springer, Berlin, pp 108–117

    Google Scholar 

  8. Shibata T, Kawaguchi Y, Wada K (2011) Investigation on people living with seal robot at home. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-011-0111-1

    Google Scholar 

  9. Foulk E (2007) Lonely robots ignored by elderly ludites. The New Zealand Herald. http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/09/20/us-japan-ageing-gadgets-idUST29547120070920?sp=true. Accessed September 2007

  10. Mahoney R (1997) Robotic products for rehabilitation: status and strategy. In: Proceedings of the international conference on rehabilitation robotics. http://people.bath.ac.uk/mpsmrh/icorr97/mahoney1.pdf. Accessed September 2011

    Google Scholar 

  11. Venkatesh V, Morris MG, Davis GB, Davis FD (2003) User acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. MIS Q 7(3):425–478

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dautenhahn K, Woods S, Kaouri C, Walters ML, Koay KL, Werry I (2005) What is a robot—companion, friend, assistant or butler? In: Proceedings of the RSJ international conference on intelligent robots, Alberta, Canada. doi:10.1109/IROS.2005.1545189

    Google Scholar 

  13. Khan Z (1998) Attitudes towards intelligent service robots. Technical report No TRITA-NA- P9821 NADA, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. ftp://ftp.nada.kth.se/pub/documents/IPLab/TechReports/IPLab-154.pdf. Accessed March 2012

  14. Broadbent E, Tamagawa R, Patience A, Knock B, Kerse N, Day K, MacDonald BA (2011) Attitudes towards health care robots in a retirement village. Aust J Aging. doi:10.1111/j.1741-6612.2011.00551.x

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hirsch T, Forlizzi J, Hyder E, Goetz J, Kurtz C, Stroback J (2000) The ELDer project: social, emotional, and environmental factors in the design of eldercare technologies. In: Proceedings on the 2000 conference on universal usability. ACM, Virginia, USA. doi:10.1145/355460.355476

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cavallaro FI, Facal D, Pigini L, Mast M, Blasi, L. (2013) Detailed user requirements, environment definition, general guidelines on ethical concerns and SRS scenario report. http://srs-project.eu/sites/default/files/SRS%20247772%20DELIVERABLE%201.1.pdf. Accessed Jan 2013

  17. Stafford R, MacDonald BA, Broadbent E (2012) Identifying specific reasons behind unmet needs may inform more specific eldercare robot design. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on social robotics, Chengdu, China. Springer, Berlin, pp 148–157

    Google Scholar 

  18. Koay KL, Syrdal DS, Walters ML, Dautenhahn K (2007) Living with robots: investigating the habituation effect in participants’ preferences during a longitudinal human-robot interaction study. In: Proceedings of the 16th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, Jeju, Korea, pp 564–569

    Google Scholar 

  19. Heerink M, Kröse B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2010) Assessing acceptance of assistive social agent technology by older adults: the Almere model. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-010-0068-5

    Google Scholar 

  20. Stiehl WD, Breazeal C, Han KH, Lieberman J, Lalla L, Maymin A, Salinas J, Fuentes D, Toscano R, Tong CH (2006) The Huggable: A therapeutic robotic companion for relational, affective touch. In: Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE consumer communications and networking conference. ACM, Boston. doi:10.1109/CCNC.2006.1593253

    Google Scholar 

  21. Libin A, Cohen-Mansfield J (2004) Therapeutic robocat for nursing home residents with dementia: preliminary inquiry. Am J Alzheimer’s Dis Other Dement. doi:10.1177/153331750401900209

    Google Scholar 

  22. Banks MR, Willoughby LM, Banks WA (2008) Animal-assisted therapy and loneliness in nursing homes: use of robotic versus living dogs. J Am Med Dir Assoc 9(7):173–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pollack ME, Brown L, Colbry D, Orosz C, Peintner B, Ramakrishnan S, Engberg S, Matthews JT, Dunbar-Jacob J, McCarthy CE (2002) Pearl: a mobile robotic assistant for the elderly. In: Proceedings of AAAI workshop on automation in eldercare, Edmonton, Canada, vol 2002

    Google Scholar 

  24. Graf B, Parlitz C, Hägele M (2009) Robotic home assistant Care-O-bot® 3 product vision and innovation platform. In: Proceedings of 13th international conference on human-computer interaction. Part II: Novel interaction methods and techniques, Tokyo, Japan. doi:10.1109/ARSO.2009.5587059

    Google Scholar 

  25. Stafford RQ, Broadbent E, Jayawardena C, Unger U, Kuo IH, Igic A, Wong R, Kerse N, Watson C, MacDonald BA (2010) Improved robot attitudes and emotions at a retirement home after meeting a robot. In: Proceedings of 19th RO-MAN international symposium on robots and human interaction, Viareggio, Italy. doi:10.1109/ROMAN.2010.5598679

    Google Scholar 

  26. Fasola J, Mataric J (2010) Robot exercise instructor: a socially assistive robot system to monitor and encourage physical exercise for the elderly, Viareggio, Italy. In: Proceedings of 19th RO-MAN international symposium on robots and human interaction, Viareggio, Italy. doi:10.1109/ROMAN.2010.5598658

    Google Scholar 

  27. Tapus A, Mataric M (2010) Socially assistive robotic music therapist for maintaining attention of older adults with cognitive impairments. In: Proceedings of the AAAI fall symposium AI in eldercare: new solutions to an old problem, Virginia, USA. http://www.aaai.org/Papers/Symposia/Fall/2008/FS-08-02/FS08-02-019.pdf. Accessed 2011

    Google Scholar 

  28. Kidd C, Taggart W, Turkle S (2006) A sociable robot to encourage social interaction among the elderly. In: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Florida, USA. doi:10.1109/ROBOT.2006.1642311

    Google Scholar 

  29. Holland O (2003) Exploration and high adventure: the legacy of Grey Walter. In: Mathematical, physical and engineering sciences. Phil trans of the Royal Society of London. Series A. doi:10.1098/rsta.2003.126025

    Google Scholar 

  30. Heerink M, Kröse B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2008) The influence of social presence on enjoyment and intention to use of a robot and screen agent by elderly users. In: Proceedings of the 17th IEEE RO-MAN international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, Munich, Germany, pp 695–700

    Google Scholar 

  31. Davis FD (1993) User acceptance of information technology: system characteristics, user perceptions and behavioral impacts. Int J Man-Mach Stud 38(3):475–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Bagozzi RP (2007) The legacy of the technology acceptance model and a proposal for a paradigm shift. J Assoc Inf Syst 8(4):244–254

    Google Scholar 

  33. Charness N, Boot WR (2009) Aging and information technology use; potential and barriers. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01647.x

    Google Scholar 

  34. Hong SJ, Thong JYL, Tam KY (2006) Understanding continued information technology usage behavior: a comparison of three models in the context of mobile Internet. Decis Support Syst. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2006.03.009

    Google Scholar 

  35. Broadbent E, Kuo IH, Lee YI, Rabindran J, Kerse N, Stafford R, MacDonald BA (2010) Attitudes and reactions to a healthcare robot. Telemed e-Health. doi:10.1089/tmj.2009.0171

    Google Scholar 

  36. Gee FC, Browne WN, Kawamura K (2005) Uncanny valley revisited. In: Proceedings of 2005 IEEE international workshop on robots and human interactive communication, Nashville, USA. doi:10.1109/ROMAN.2005.1513772

    Google Scholar 

  37. Weiten W (2004) Psychology: themes and variations, 6th edn. Thomson Wadsworth, California

    Google Scholar 

  38. Crawford SY, Grussing PG, Clark TG, Rice JA (1998) Staff attitudes about the use of robots in pharmacy before implementation of a robotic dispensing system. Am J Health-Syst Pharm 55(18):1907–1914

    Google Scholar 

  39. Goetz J, Kiesler S, Powers A (2003) Matching robot appearance and behavior to tasks to improve human-robot cooperation. In: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE international workshop on robot and human interactive communication, California, USA. doi:10.1109/ROMAN.2003.1251796

    Google Scholar 

  40. Heerink M, Krose B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2006) The influence of a robot’s social abilities on acceptance by elderly users. In: Proceedings of the 15th IEEE international workshop on robot and human interactive communication, Hatfield, UK, pp 521–526

    Google Scholar 

  41. Nomura T, Kanda T, Suzuki T (2006) Experimental investigation into influence of negative attitudes toward robots on human–robot interaction. AI & society. Springer, Berlin. doi:10.1007/s00146-005-0012-7

    Google Scholar 

  42. Syrdal DS, Dautenhahn K, Koay KL, Walters ML (2009) The negative attitudes towards robots scale and reactions to robot behaviour in a live human-robot interaction study. In: AISB symposium on new frontiers in HRI, Edinburgh, UK. http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb09/Proceedings/NEWFRONTIERS/FILES/SyrdalDDautenhahn.pdf. Accessed January 2012

    Google Scholar 

  43. Gray HM, Gray K, Wegner DM (2007) Dimensions of mind perception. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1134475

    Google Scholar 

  44. Gray K, Wegner DM (2012) Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley. Cognition. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2012.06.007

  45. Reeves B, Nass C (1996) How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. CSLI Publications and Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  46. Nass C, Steuer J, Tauber ER (1994) Computers are social actors. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems celebrating interdependence. ACM, New York. doi:10.1145/191666.191703

    Google Scholar 

  47. Breazeal C, Kidd CD, Thomaz AL, Hoffman G, Berlin M (2005) Effects of nonverbal communication on efficiency and robustness in human-robot teamwork. In: Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems. IEEE, Alberta. doi:10.1109/IROS.2005.1545011

    Google Scholar 

  48. DiSalvo CF, Gemperle F, Forlizzi J, Kiesler S (2002) All robots are not created equal: the design and perception of humanoid robot heads. In: Proceedings of the 2002 international conference on designing interactive systems. ACM Press, London. doi:10.1145/778712.778756

    Google Scholar 

  49. Severinson-Eklundh K, Green A, Hüttenrauch H (2003) Social and collaborative aspects of interaction with a service robot. Robot Auton Syst. doi:10.1016/S0921-8890(02)00377-9

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  50. Epley N, Waytz A, Cacioppo JT (2007) On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychol Rev. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864

    Google Scholar 

  51. Eyssel F, Kuchenbrandt D, Bobinger S (2011) Effects of anticipated human-robot interaction and predictability of robot behavior on perceptions of anthropomorphism. In: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on human-robot interaction, ACM’11, Lausanne, Switzerland. doi:10.1145/1957656.1957673

    Google Scholar 

  52. Takayama L (2012) Perspectives on agency interacting with and through personal robots. In: Hum comput interact: the agency perspective. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25691-2_8

    Google Scholar 

  53. Broadbent E, Lee YI, Stafford RQ, Kuo IH, MacDonald BA (2011) Mental schemas of robots as more human-like are associated with higher blood pressure and negative emotions in a human-robot interaction. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-011-0096-9

    Google Scholar 

  54. Tiwari P, Warren J, Day K, Datta C (2011) Comprehensive support for self-management of medications by a networked robot for the elderly. In: Health Care and Informatics Review Online, www.hinz.org, HINZ’11

  55. Jayawardena C, Kuo I, Datta C, Stafford RQ, Broadbent E, MacDonald BA (2012) Design, implementation and field tests of a socially assistive robot for the elderly: HealthBot version 2. In: Proceedings of 4th IEEE RAS & EMBS international conference on biomedical robotics and biomechatronics (BioRob), Rome, Italy. IEEE Press, New York. doi:10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290890

    Google Scholar 

  56. Kuo IH, Jayawardena C, Broadbent E, Stafford R, MacDonald B (2012) HRI evaluation of a healthcare service robot. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on social robotics, Chengdu, China. Springer, Berlin, pp 178–187

    Google Scholar 

  57. University of Auckland (2012) HealthBots. https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Healthbots+public+pages. Accessed March 2012

  58. Jayawardena C, Kuo IH, Unger U, Igic A, Wong R, Watson CI, Stafford RQ, Broadbent E, Tiwari P, Warren J (2010) Deployment of a service robot to help older people. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference of intelligent robots and systems, Teipei, Taiwan. IEEE Press, New York. doi:10.1109/IROS.2010.5649910

    Google Scholar 

  59. Kuo I-H, Jayawardena C, Broadbent E, MacDonald BA (2011) Multidisciplinary design approach for implementation of interactive services: communication initiation and user identification for healthcare service robots. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-011-0115-x

    Google Scholar 

  60. Tiwari P, Warren J, Day K (2011) Empowering older patients to engage in self care: designing an interactive robotic device. In: Proceedings of AMIA annual symposium. American Medical Informatics Association, Bethesda, pp 1402–1411

    Google Scholar 

  61. Dakim (2012) Dakim BrainFitness Software. http://www.dakim.com/about-brain-fitness/professional-brain-fitness/. Accessed January 2012

  62. Taylor P, Black AW, Caley R (1999) The architecture of the Festival speech synthesis system. Citeseer, http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projectsfestival/. Accessed March 2012

  63. Watson CI, Teutenberg J, Thompson L, Roehling S, Igic A (2009) How to build a New Zealand voice. Paper presented at the NZ linguistic society conference, Palmerston North, November 30–December 1

  64. Igic A, Watson CI, Teutenberg J, Broadbent E, Tamagawa R, MacDonald B (2009) Towards a flexible platform for voice accent and expression selection on a healthcare robot. Paper presented at 7th Australasian language technology association workshop. Sydney, Australia, December 3–4

  65. Hagisonic Co. Ltd (2008) Localization system StarGazer for intelligent robots. http://www.hagisonic.com. Accessed April 2012

  66. Kristoffersson A, Severinson Eklundh K, Loutfi A (2012) Measuring the quality of interaction in mobile robotic telepresence: a pilot’s perspective. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-012-0166-7

    Google Scholar 

  67. Cunningham S, Chellali A, Jaffre I, Classe J, Cao CG (2013) Effects of experience and workplace culture in human-robot team interaction in robotic surgery: a case study. Int J Soc Robot. doi:10.1007/s12369-012-0170-y

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  68. Mori M (1970) The uncanny valley. Energy 7(4):33–35

    Google Scholar 

  69. Broadbent E (2011) Human-robot interaction research to improve quality of life: an approach and issues. In: Metzler T (ed) Human-robot interaction in elder care. 25th AAAI conf on artificial intelligence AAAI-11, pp 13–19. Technical report WS-11-12

    Google Scholar 

  70. Heerink M, Kröse B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2006) Studying the acceptance of a robotic agent by elderly users. Int J Assist Robot Mechatron 7(3):33–43

    Google Scholar 

  71. Kidd CD, Breazeal C (2008) Robots at home: understanding long-term human-robot interaction. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems IROS, Nice, France. doi:10.1109/IROS.2008.4651113

    Google Scholar 

  72. Forlizzi J, DiSalvo C (2006) Service robots in the domestic environment: a study of the Roomba vacuum in the home. In: Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCHI/SIGART conference on human-robot interaction, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. ACM, New York. doi:10.1145/1121241.1121286

    Google Scholar 

  73. Dennett DC (1987) The intentional stance. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the R&D program of the Korea Ministry of Knowledge and Economy (MKE) and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) [KI001836: Development of Mediated Interface Technology for HRI] and the New Zealand Ministry for Science and Innovation (13635). We thank Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) for their valuable contributions and help with the research. We would also like to thank Yujin Robot for their technical support and our colleagues from the University of Auckland HealthBots research team for their on-going support. The HealthBots team would particularly like to express grateful thanks to the residents and staff of Selwyn Village whose support has made this study possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Rebecca Q. Stafford & Elizabeth Broadbent

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bruce A. MacDonald

  3. Department of Computing, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Chandimal Jayawardena

  4. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel M. Wegner

Authors
  1. Rebecca Q. Stafford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bruce A. MacDonald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chandimal Jayawardena
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Daniel M. Wegner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Elizabeth Broadbent
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecca Q. Stafford.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stafford, R.Q., MacDonald, B.A., Jayawardena, C. et al. Does the Robot Have a Mind? Mind Perception and Attitudes Towards Robots Predict Use of an Eldercare Robot. Int J of Soc Robotics 6, 17–32 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0186-y

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0186-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation