Consumers and service robots: Power relationships amid COVID-19 pandemic

Robotics significantly influence retail and consumer services. The COVID-19 pandemic further amplified the rise of service robots (SRs) through social distancing measures. While robots are embraced widely by retailers and service providers, consumers' interaction with SRs remains an intriguing avenue of research across contexts. By taking a relative social power perspective, we report on a series of pre- and intra-COVID-19 studies. Our findings suggest that Gen-Z consumers hold more positive attitudes towards SRs perceived as lower in power vis-a-vis the human user. The longitudinal nature of our study also reveals that while attitudes towards such low-power services turned more negative during the COVID-19 pandemic, attitudes towards SRs that are high in power vis-a-vis the human user remained stable. In practical terms, while Gen-Z consumers hold more positive attitudes towards low-power robots, such service providers also face the challenge of relatively changeable attitudes towards them, especially during crisis times.

Automated summary

Robotics has a significant impact on retail and consumer services, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further promoted the rise of service robots. While consumers have a positive attitude towards interacting with robots, their attitude towards low-power robots becomes more negative during crisis times, while attitudes towards high-power robots remain stable.