Effects of intergroup relations on people's acceptance of robots

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of intergroup relations on robots through comparison with other objects. In an experiment, participants watched eight stimuli drawn from four types of objects (people vs. robots vs. animals vs. products) according to two types of intergroup relations (in-group vs. out-group) and rated each stimuli in terms of familiarity, reliability, and preference. Regarding familiarity and reliability, the effect of intergroup relations on robots was greater than that on animals or products, but smaller than that on people. The degree of the effect regarding reliability was larger than that regarding familiarity for all types of object. In the case of preference, the effects of intergroup relations between people and robots and between animals and products were similar, and the effect on people and robots was greater than that on animals and products.