No thank you to humanized robots: attitudes to care robots in elder care services

Figures & data

Figure 1. Items sorted by subscales. NARS-rev = Revised version of Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (Nomura, Kanda, & Suzuki, 2006a). * = Reversed response.

Table 1. Demographic data for participants (n = 124)

Age group 19–65 years, n (%) 66–75 years, n (%) 76–94 years, n (%)	23 (19) 63 (51) 38 (31)
Gender Female, n (%) Male, n (%) Unspecified, n (%)	82 (66) 39 (32) 3 (2)
Highest level of education Elementary school, n (%) Upper secondary school, n (%) University or university college, n (%)	19 (15) 33 (27) 72 (58)

Table 2. Subgroups comparison of participants’ (n = 124) attitudes toward robots in elder care services – scores for total scale and subscales. Higher scores indicate more negative attitudes

NARS-rev	Total scale MD (q1–q3)	Subscale 1. Situations and interaction with robots, MD (q1–q3)	Subscale 2. Social influence of robots, MD (q1–q3)	Subscale 3. Emotions in interaction with robots, MD (q1–q3)
Possible range	14–70	6–30	5–25	3–15
All participants, n = 124	38.5 (31.25–46)	14 (10–18)	16 (13–18)	9 (7–11.75)
Age group 19–65 years, n = 23 66–75 years, n = 63 76–94 years, n = 38 p-value^a	37 (31–42.5) 39 (31.5–45) 41 (34–49) .318	12 (10–15) 14 (10–18) 14 (11–18) .289	15 (13–18) 15 (12–17) 17 (13–18) .407	9 (7–10.25) 9 (7–11) 9.5 (8–13) .299
Gender Female, n = 82 Male, n = 39 Unspecified, n = 3 p-value^a	39 (31–46) 36 (32.5–45) 38 (34–42) .908	14 (10–18.25) 13 (10–17) 17 (13–17) .902	16 (13–18) 14 (13–17.5) 16 (15–16.5) .654	9 (7–11) 9.5 (8–12) 7 (6–9.5) .418
Highest level of education Elementary school, n = 19 Upper secondary school, n = 33 University or university college, n = 72 p-value^a	36 (33.5–44) 42 (35–51) 38 (30–44) .115	13 (10.5–18.5) 16 (12–22) 13 (10–17) .020	15 (12–17.5) 16 (14–19) 15 (13–18) .329	10 (8–10.5) 9 (8–12) 9 (7–12) .791

MD = median, NARS-rev = Revised version of Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (Nomura, Kanda, & Suzuki, 2006). q₁–q₃ = the 25^th and the 75^th percentile – Tukey’s Hinges, ^a = Kruskal-Wallis test – Asymp. Sig.

Table 3. Participants’ (n = 124) attitudes toward robots in elder care services – scores on a single-item level divided for subscales. Number of participants who state their agreement vs. disagreement vs. indifference toward the respective item

All participants, n = 124 (%)
NARS-rev	Agree (negative attitudes)	Disagree (positive attitudes)	Neither agree nor disagree (neutral attitudes)
Subscale 1. Situations and interaction with robots 4. I would feel uneasy if I had to use robots in my daily life 7. The word ‘robot’ means nothing to me. 8. I would feel nervous operating a robot in front of otherpeople. 9. I would hate the idea that robots or artificial intelligences were making judgments about things within elder care. 10. I would feel very nervous just standing in front of a robot. 12. I would feel paranoid talking with a robot.	27 (21.8) 38 (30.6) 21 (16.9) 39 (31.5) 24 (19.4) 24 (19.4)	81 (65.3) 56 (45.2) 83 (66.9) 49 (39.5) 79 (63.7) 81 (65.3)	16 (12.9) 30 (24.2) 20 (16.1) 36 (29) 21 (16.9) 19 (15.3)
Subscale 2. Social influence of robots 1. I would feel uneasy if robots really had emotions. 2. Something bad might happen if robots became more like human beings. 11. I feel that if I depend on robots too much, something bad might happen. 13. I am concerned that robots would be a bad influence on older persons. 14. In the future, I think there will be many robots in the care of the elderly.	47 (37.9) 48 (38.7) 28 (22.6) 29 (23.4) 100 (80.6)	36 (29) 38 (30.6) 56 (45.2) 71 (57.3) 9 (7.3)	41 (33.1) 38 (30.6) 40 (32.3) 24 (19.4) 15 (12.1)
NARS-rev	Disagree (negative attitudes)	Agree (positive attitudes)	Neither agree nor disagree (neutral attitudes)
Subscale 3. Emotions in interaction with robots 3. I would feel relaxed talking with robots in the elder care. * 5. If robots had emotions, I would be able to make friends with them. * 6. I would feel comforted being with robots that have emotions. *	34 (27.4) 53 (42.7) 45 (36.3)	60 (48.4) 27 (21.8) 28 (22.6)	30 (24.2) 44 (35.5) 51 (41.1)

NARS-rev = Revised version of Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (Nomura, Kanda, & Suzuki, 2006). Participants’ responses of 1 and 2 = positive attitudes, 3 = neutral attitudes, and 4 and 5 = negative attitudes. * = Reversed response

Nomura, T., Suzuki, T., Kanda, T., & Kato, K. (2006a). Measurement of negative attitudes toward robots. Interaction Studies 7(3), 437–454. https://doi.org/10.1075/is.7.3.14

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Nomura, T., Suzuki, T., Kanda, T., & Kato, K. (2006a). Measurement of negative attitudes toward robots. Interaction Studies, 7(3), 437–454. doi:https://doi.org/10.1075/is.7.3.14

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar