Public perception of socially assistive robots for healthcare in the EU: A large-scale survey

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey (n = 1092) that explored the attitudes and opinions of European Citizens regarding the adoption of socially assistive robots (SARs) for healthcare in the EU. We examined which functions citizens would support and which they consider a threat to trustworthy SARs. We additionally explored the relationships between the perceived vulnerability of the care recipient and acceptance, between attitudes towards robots and gender, age, religious beliefs, and previous experience interacting with SARs, and whether the degree of responsibility taken in performing a role affects acceptance. We also compared attitudes towards robots across European regions. The functions most negatively rated were triage and banning entrance. Privacy raised particular concern. We also found an inverse correlation between the perceived vulnerability of care recipients and acceptance. Additionally, we found a positive relationship between religious beliefs and fear of robots, a positive relationship between previous robot experience and attitudes towards them, and that females have less positive attitudes towards robots than males. Also, the degree of responsibility in a role determined acceptance. Involving citizens in the decisions concerning SARs deployment is important to build a society that people feel is fair in terms of robot coexistence. The results of the survey intend to provide evidence-based support to policies in this area.

Fig. 1

Social robots introduced in the survey. Credits, from left to right, and top to bottom: Pepper: Softbank Robotics Europe, Pepper the Robot, CC BY-SA 4.0; Nao: Softbank Robotics Europe, NAO Evolution, Size, CC BY-SA 4.0; QTrobot: QTrobot, Qtrobot, CC BY-SA 4.0; DinsowMini; Jahjajachay, Dinsow mini, CC BY-SA 4.0; ElliQ: Laranorman, "ELLI 3 RGB.jpg”, CC BY-SA 4.0; Paro, Tekniska museet/Peter Häll, Robotsälen Paro TEKS0057912, CC BY-SA 4.0; Kaspar: Matt Brown from London, England derivative work: M1llx, "Science Museum - Robots - Robot for autistic children (32781592346)--modfied.jpg”, CC BY 2.0; Misty: Web Summit, "071119SMcC0167”, CC BY 2.0.

Fig. 2

Overall view of robots.

Fig. 3

General attitude towards robots.

Fig. 4

Attitude towards robots for healthcare.