The impacts of intergroup relations and body zones on people´s acceptance of a robot

This study explores social distance management as a strategic way to alleviate people´s dissatisfaction with a vacuum cleaning robot, particularly when the robot requires an unpleasant favor. We executed a 2 (intergroup relations: out-group vs. in-group) × 3 (body zones: close vs. 40cm vs. 1m) mixed-participants experiment (N=36). People evaluated the impressions and service of out-group robots more positively as the distance of asking for a favor became shorter, while they preferred in-group robots as the distance became greater.