COVID-19が社会的コンパニオンロボットへの認識を変えた
Social Companion Robots to Reduce Isolation: A Perception Change Due to COVID-19
COVID-19の自粛期間中に2回のオンライン実験を行い、パンデミックによる変化や孤独感が社会的コンパニオンロボットへの肯定的認識と購入意欲を高めることを示した。
著者: Moojan Ghafurian, Colin Ellard, Kerstin Dautenhahn
分類: cs.CY, cs.RO
原文アブストラクト
Social isolation is one of the negative consequences of a pandemic like COVID-19. Social isolation and loneliness are not only experienced by older adults, but also by younger people who live alone and cannot communicate with others or get involved in social situations as they used to. In such situations, social companion robots might have the potential to reduce social isolation and increase well-being. However, society's perception of social robots has not always been positive. In this paper, we conducted two online experiments with 102 and 132 participants during the self isolation periods of COVID-19 (May-June 2020 and January 2021), to study how COVID-19 has affected people's perception of the benefits of a social robot. Our results showed that a change caused by COVID-19, as well as having an older relative who lived alone or at a care center during the pandemic significantly and positively affected people's perception of social robots, as companions, and that the feeling of loneliness can drive the purchase of a social robot. The second study replicated the results of the first study. We also discuss the effects of Big 5 personality traits on the likelihood to purchase a social robot, as well as on participants' general attitude towards COVID-19 and adapting to the pandemic.
