Who is who in the age of service robots: The impact of robots’ demand for user identification in human-to-robot interactions

In the not-so-distant future, when we are expected to be increasingly engaged in interactions with service robots, it can also be expected that such interactions will require that we identify ourselves. That is to say, given that identification demands occur frequently when we use computers, mobile telephones and websites, it is expected that this will be the case also for service robots. So far, however, the effects of such demands have not been examined in existing research on human-to-robot interactions. Yet, identification is an issue with potentially profound implications, and demands for identification appear to have mainly a negative charge in many settings beyond human-to-robot interactions. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to explore what happens when a user of a service robot is asked by the robot to identify him/herself. To this end, two experiments were conducted in which a service robot’s demand for user identification was manipulated (no demand for identification before usage vs. demand for identification before usage). The results indicate that the robot’s demand for identification attenuated perceived robot warmth, usefulness, and trust; enhanced privacy concerns; and reduced the overall evaluation of the robot. A proposed mechanism behind these outcomes, priming, was assessed empirically. The results with respect to the latter indicate that a robot’s request for identification makes accessible mainly negatively charged material about identification in other contexts than human-to-robot interactions, and that this material informs responses to the robot.