Gender characteristics of service robots can influence customer decisions

Summary

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The hospitality industry can leverage the gender characteristics of service robots to influence customers’ decisions, according to new research from a team in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management. Service robots with characteristics typically associated with males may be more persuasive when interacting with women who have a low sense of power, according to the researchers. The team also found that “cute” features in the design of robots — such as big eyes and raised cheeks — may reduce the effect of portrayed robot gender on persuasiveness, as male and female customers responded similarly to robots with these “cute” features. Lavi Peng, doctoral candidate; Anna Mattila, Marriott Professor of Lodging Management; and Amit Sharma, Edward Friedman and Stuart Mann Professor of Hospitality Management — all at Penn State — led this research. Their findings were published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. “Robots can be designed or programed to have human-like features like names, voices and body shapes, which portray gender,” Mattila said. “In addition to robot gender, a consumer’s sense of power — how individuals perceive their ability to influence others or their environment — can also affect how successful a service robot can be in making recommendations.” The researchers conducted two studies to find how the gender portrayed in service robots could influence customers’ decisions. The first study surveyed 239 people who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were asked to first rate their sense of power before imagining visiting a new restaurant and receiving a menu recommendation for a breakfast burrito from a service robot. Service robots depicted in the study were the same except for the use of gray or pink colors to portray male or female genders, respectively. After receiving a menu recommendation, participants then rated the robot’s persuasiveness. “We found women with a low sense of power wer...