Getting to Know You: Relationship Between Intergroup Contact and Willingness to Interact
While researchers expect it will be technologically possible for robots to be widely available in society in the near future, the public shows negative attitudes toward robots that may impede their acceptance. Intergroup contact theory shows that positive contact with an outgroup reduces prejudice and increases positive emotions towards that outgroup. This was applied to an interaction between a participant and a humanoid robot to determine if those who interacted directly with, including touching, the robot would perceive all robots in a more positive manner and be more willing to interact with them. Results indicated that contact with the robot, compared with the Control condition, produced a marginally higher willingness to interact with robots.