Humanoid versus non-humanoid robots: How mortality salience shapes preference for robot services under the COVID-19 pandemic?
Introduction
Service robots are becoming increasingly popular in the hospitality and tourism industry. For example, some leading hotel chains have adopted service robots in their daily operations, including delivery of room service, check-in, cleaning, security checks, and entertainment (Tussyadiah & Park, 2018). Service robots, defined as “system-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact, communicate, and deliver service to an organization's customers” (Wirtz et al., 2018, p. 909), have been regarded as important elements of the frontline service process (Tuomi et al., 2019). The service robotics market was valued at USD 23, 577.1 million in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 212, 619.7 million by 2026 (Mordor Intelligence, 2020). In fact, the highly infectious nature of COVID-19 calls for contactless robotic solutions that can lower the risk of virus transmission in the hospitality and tourism industry (Wan et al., 2020). Similarly, consumers favored robot-staffed (vs. human-staffed) hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kim et al., 2021).
Although service robots are playing more and more important roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are several research gaps related to service robot adoption. First, scant research has systematically examined how consumers/tourists react to service robots under the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic situations. Second, mortality salience is a general perception during the pandemic, but very few studies have investigated its impact on consumers'/tourists' reactions in the hospitality and tourism field (Miao et al., 2021). Third, the majority of previous research has focused on the advantage of adopting humanoid service robots, little research attention has been paid to understand what situations consumers/tourists may react negatively to humanoid service robots. This research aims to address these important research gaps.
Notably, previous studies have investigated the advantage of adopting service robots in the hospitality and tourism industry during the COVID-19 (e.g., Wan et al., 2020; Xiong et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2021), however, they have not examined what kind of robot consumers would prefer in response to the pandemic or after the pandemic. Not surprisingly, anthropomorphic features of service robots, in terms of either form or behavior, can facilitate the interactions between humans and robots (Duffy, 2003). Research has shown that service robots' human-like characteristics can enhance perceptions of their trustworthiness and responsibility, inducing a greater intention to interact with them (Murphy et al., 2019). Consumers generally perceive humanoid service robots to have greater warmth (Kim et al., 2019; Tussyadiah & Park, 2018), and greater perceived service provider warmth leads to more positive service outcomes (Smith et al., 2016). To summarize, most studies have concluded that consumers react more positively to humanoid service robots than to non-humanoid service robots.
However, the sweeping COVID-19 pandemic has foregrounded the ideas of mortality and death in the general population across the globe (Miao et al., 2021). Even those who have not had first-hand experience of the pandemic have been reminded of their mortality by the extensive media coverage of the high mortality rate (Long, 2020). According to the terror management theory (Solomon et al., 1991), mortality salience can threaten one's identity and motivate people to protect themselves from outside insecurity (Bonsu & Belk, 2003). Recent research has found that humanoid service robots could generate feelings of insecurity in consumers and tourists because their appearance could challenge humans' sense of uniqueness, threaten their human identity, and produce existential anxiety (Mende et al., 2019). In this regard, we argue that consumers/tourists may react negatively to humanoid service robots under mortality salience (e.g., in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic). Therefore, we propose that when the mortality experience is less salient, consumers and tourists will react more positively to humanoid service robots (vs. non-humanoid service robots). However, when consumers/tourists experience mortality salience (e.g., from the surge of deaths from COVID-19), they will be more reluctant to adopt services provided by humanoid service robots. Hence, consumers and tourists would react negatively to humanoid service robots and be less likely to choose services provided by these robots.
We also propose that temporal distance attenuates the negative reactions to humanoid service robots when the mortality experience is salient. Research has suggested that when consumption is distant (vs. proximal), people are more optimistic about fulfilling their purchasing goals. For example, when consumption is temporally distant, the anticipated pleasure from fulfilling one's purchasing goal will drive the preference for promotion-framed (e.g., a vehicle with cutting edge style and loads of extra features) over prevention-framed products (e.g., a vehicle never behind the times and no skimping on features) (Mogilner et al., 2008). Inversely, temporal proximity can heighten consumers' and tourists' sensitivity to potential impediments and negative outcomes (Liberman & Trope, 1998). We then propose that such future optimism can reduce consumers'/tourists' existential anxiety, attenuating negative reactions to humanoid service robots.
We confirmed these possibilities in six experiments. Our research makes several contributions to the literature. First, this research is among the first to examine consumers'/tourists' interaction with service robots both in high mortality salience (e.g., under the COVID-19 pandemic) and low mortality salience situations (e.g., post-pandemic situations). Although the majority of past literature suggests that consumers will react more positively to humanoid service robots than to non-humanoid service robots (e.g., Kim et al., 2019; Tussyadiah & Park, 2018), we found that these favorable reactions only happen when mortality salience is low. They will react more negatively to humanoid service robots when mortality salience is high.
Moreover, previous literature mainly examined perceived risk and behaviors caused by the pandemic (Kim et al., 2021; Xiong et al., 2021). We take a nuanced perspective and investigate a timely concept, mortality salience, which is a general perception during the pandemic, but scant research has investigated its impact in the hospitality and tourism field (Miao et al., 2021). Our research extends terror management theory into the hospitality and tourism context, and we have identified the perceived threat to human identity mediates the effect of mortality salience on consumer preference for services provided by humanoid (vs. non-humanoid) service robots.
Furthermore, we discover that the negative effect of mortality salience on consumer adoption of humanoid robots is mitigated in the situations of a distant consumption decision. This is because future optimism reduces the existential anxiety and threat induced by humanoid service robots. Overall, the current research provides critical implications for the service robot adoption under the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic situations.
Section snippets
Preference for humanoid service robots
Many studies have used the terms “humanoid” and “anthropomorphic” to describe humanoid service robots. Researchers have documented that anthropomorphism is one of the most important factors influencing consumers' intention to use service robots and consumption outcomes (e.g., Lin et al., 2020; Lu et al., 2021; Shi et al., 2021; Yu, 2020). Studies have often defined humanoid service robots as robots with human characteristics, such as a human face, shape, and human-like mobility (Kim et al., 2019
Method
We conducted six studies to verify our hypothesis. Study 1 included three sub-studies (Study 1a–1c) in which we tested the correlation between mortality salience perception and preference for humanoid service robots across various cultural backgrounds and service contexts. In Study 2, to establish the causal relationship between mortality salience and preference for humanoid robot service, mortality salience was manipulated, and perceived threat to human identity was identified as the mechanism
Conclusion
Studies have emphasized that humanoid service robots can induce perceptions of warmth (Kim et al., 2019) and facilitate positive marketing outcomes (e.g., satisfaction) (Yam et al., 2021). Accordingly, anthropomorphism should be advocated while implementing service robots (Yam et al., 2021). However, our findings show that when mortality is salient, consumers and tourists generally favor non-humanoid service robots and prefer services provided by non-humanoid service robots. The perceived
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xing (Stella) Liu: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Data curation, Project administration. Lisa C. Wan: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xiao (Shannon) Yi: Writing – review & editing, Data curation.
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the “Project Impact Enhancement Fund, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Grant No. 3133277)” awarded to the second author.
Xing (Stella) Liu: Ph.D. Student at School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Research interest: Tourist and consumer behavior.
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Xing (Stella) Liu: Ph.D. Student at School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Research interest: Tourist and consumer behavior.
Lisa C. Wan: Associate Professor at SHTM, CUHK. Research interest: Services marketing and consumer behavior.
Xiao (Shannon) Yi: PhD Candidate at SHTM, CUHK. Research interest: Services marketing.