Effect of cooking and food serving robot design images and information on consumer liking, willingness to try food, and emotional responses

Abstract

The utilization of robots in the food industry, including restaurants and cafés, has increased in recent years. This study investigated participants' responses to robots in the serving and cooking domains, which require varying degrees of consumer interactions. This study examined expected liking and willingness to try food prepared or served by robots at three levels of anthropomorphism, along with associated emotional responses. Participants were divided into a group that received positive information about robot (n = 845) and a control group (n = 870). Compared to the control group, the informed group showed significantly higher ratings for the expected liking (p < 0.05) and willingness to try (p < 0.05) food from cooking robots. For serving robots, only willingness to try (p < 0.05) was higher in the informed group. The informed group also demonstrated more positive emotions (adventurous, secure, curious, daring, interested, and trusting) and fewer negative emotions (disgusted, disagreeable, and bad) than those of the control group. For the varying levels of cooking and serving robots, the ratings of consumers' expected liking and willingness to try food were significantly decreased (p < 0.05) as robots are became more human-like. In the emotional change, the lower the level of anthropomorphism, the stronger the positive emotions and the weaker. Considering the current labor shortages and rising costs in food service sector, appropriate designed robots can effectively enhance consumer acceptance of robot-prepared or robot-served food.