Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach
We draw on the social information processing(SIP) model to argue that users’ earlier experiences with online social environments tend to attribute human-like characteristics to robots. Specifically, when users engage in socially-charged electronic environments to inte...
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Franklin University Switzerland
2013-01-01
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doaj-4e408ab6e82e4cffae4274777344ef2f2020-11-24T22:25:25ZengFranklin University Switzerland Intervalla : Platform for Intellectual Exchange2296-34132296-34132013-01-0111734Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation ApproachDaniel Halpern0James E. Katz1Pontifical Catholic University of ChileBoston UniversityWe draw on the social information processing(SIP) model to argue that users’ earlier experiences with online social environments tend to attribute human-like characteristics to robots. Specifically, when users engage in socially-charged electronic environments to interact and communicate electronically with others, they find ways to overcome the relative lack of cues to adapt to the medium; this includes in terms of reacting to emotional relationships (Walther, 1997). We hypothesize that individuals who have a high sense of online community, engage with avatars and have higher levels of competence communicating with information and communication technologies (ICT), are more likely to recognize human like cues in robots. This in turn leads them to accept robots as part of their social and physical environments. A “robotic” social distance scale was developed to measure willingness to accept robots, and the results based on this scale, from an empirical study of college students (N = 874) are explored. The findings show that whereas avatar engagement and sense of online community have a strong effect on robots acceptance, recognition of human-like characteristics partially mediates the association between these concepts; this is even after accounting for predictors expected to affect attitudes toward robots such as religion, gender, age and robots’ appearance. The article ends by exploring the implications of this research for greater social acceptability of robots in various human domains.https://www.fus.edu/intervalla-files/3_halpern_katz.pdfcomputer mediated communication (CMC)social robotssocial information processing model (SIP)information and communication technology (ICT)avatar engagementsense of online community |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Daniel Halpern James E. Katz |
spellingShingle |
Daniel Halpern James E. Katz Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach Intervalla : Platform for Intellectual Exchange computer mediated communication (CMC) social robots social information processing model (SIP) information and communication technology (ICT) avatar engagement sense of online community |
author_facet |
Daniel Halpern James E. Katz |
author_sort |
Daniel Halpern |
title |
Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach |
title_short |
Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach |
title_full |
Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach |
title_fullStr |
Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
Close But Not Stuck:Understanding Social Distance in Human-Robot Interaction Through a Computer Mediation Approach |
title_sort |
close but not stuck:understanding social distance in human-robot interaction through a computer mediation approach |
publisher |
Franklin University Switzerland |
series |
Intervalla : Platform for Intellectual Exchange |
issn |
2296-3413 2296-3413 |
publishDate |
2013-01-01 |
description |
We draw on the social information processing(SIP) model to argue that users’ earlier experiences with online social environments tend to attribute human-like characteristics to robots. Specifically, when users engage in socially-charged electronic environments to interact and communicate electronically with others, they find ways to overcome the relative lack of cues to adapt to the medium; this includes in terms of reacting to emotional relationships (Walther, 1997). We hypothesize that individuals who have a high sense of online community, engage with avatars and have higher levels of competence communicating with information and communication technologies (ICT), are more likely to recognize human like cues in robots. This in turn leads them to accept robots as part of their social and physical environments. A “robotic” social distance scale was developed to measure willingness to accept robots, and the results based on this scale, from an empirical study of college students (N = 874) are explored. The findings show that whereas avatar engagement and sense of online community have a strong effect on robots acceptance, recognition of human-like characteristics partially mediates the association between these concepts; this is even after accounting for predictors expected to affect attitudes toward robots such as religion, gender, age and robots’ appearance. The article ends by exploring the implications of this research for greater social acceptability of robots in various human domains. |
topic |
computer mediated communication (CMC) social robots social information processing model (SIP) information and communication technology (ICT) avatar engagement sense of online community |
url |
https://www.fus.edu/intervalla-files/3_halpern_katz.pdf |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT danielhalpern closebutnotstuckunderstandingsocialdistanceinhumanrobotinteractionthroughacomputermediationapproach AT jamesekatz closebutnotstuckunderstandingsocialdistanceinhumanrobotinteractionthroughacomputermediationapproach |
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