Can Socially Assistive Robots Be Accepted by Older People Living Alone in the Community?: Empirical Findings from a Social Work Project in China

ABSTRACT

A pilot study was undertaken between March 2019 and September 2021, loaning socially assistive robots (SARs) for a 7-day trial to older people living alone in China. Quantitative assessments of participants’ acceptance of technology and loneliness were conducted before and after the intervention, supplemented with qualitative interviews. Unexpectedly, participants’ intention to use SARs decreased significantly, largely due to emotional anxiety. Meanwhile, participants’ level of loneliness remained unchanged. Follow-up interviews revealed anxious emotion, hesitant attitudes, unreal social presence, usability difficulties as contributing factors. The study provides social workers with valuable insights into introducing SARs into community care of older people.

KEYWORDS:

• Almere model
• loneliness
• older people
• socially assistive robots
• technology acceptance

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the dedicated support from the two NGOs. The following individuals also contributed to this study: Yanna Liu, Yujun Ma, Jiaying Chen, Shuhua Chen, Zhiqun Qiu, Qianyi Liang, Xinlei Li, Songguang Liao, Xiaomei Zhang, Jinyuan Ruan, Yingxiu Huang, Chao Tang, Xiaodan Huang and Jingpei Fang.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.