Personal assistance robots are making inroads into our private and public life. At the same time, most humans are still unfamiliar with this technology and hesitate to accept and use it for daily tasks. Fortunately, the designs of robots can be adjusted to yield greater acceptance, subsequently enabling their utilization across various tasks. Using a scenario-based online experiment, we explored how sociability (low vs. high), ownership (private vs. public), and affinity for technology influence the acceptance and intention to use a robot for grocery shopping. Moreover, to assess users’ preference for robots’ morphology, participants were asked to choose a robot (technical vs. anthropomorphic design) that they would prefer to use in a supermarket. We found that low sociability of the service robot and a higher affective affinity for technology led to a higher level of acceptance. For more sociable robots, higher levels of anthropomorphism were preferred. Our results point to the importance of task-specific robot design that exceeds functional considerations.

个人协助机器人正在侵入我们的私人和公共生活。与此同时，大多数人仍然不熟悉这项技术，并且犹豫是否接受并将其用于日常任务。幸运的是，可以调整机器人的设计以获得更高的接受度，从而使其能够在各种任务中使用。通过基于场景的在线实验，我们探索了社交性（低与高）、所有权（私人与公共）以及对技术的亲和力如何影响使用机器人进行杂货购物的接受度和意图。此外，为了评估用户对机器人形态的偏好，参与者被要求选择他们更喜欢在超市使用的机器人（技术与拟人化设计）。我们发现，服务机器人的社交性较低，而对技术的情感亲和力较高，因此接受度较高。对于更善于社交的机器人，更高水平的拟人化是首选。我们的结果表明，针对特定任务的机器人设计的重要性超出了功能考虑。