What People Assume about Robots: Cross-Cultural Analysis between Japan, Korea, and the USA

Abstract

Human-Robot Interaction 276 developed, called "Palo," in several countries including Japan, the U.K, Sweden, Italy, and Korea. Although their results revealed that nationality affected the evaluation factors, they were limited to a specific type of robots. Bartneck et al., (2007) reported some cultural differences on negative attitudes toward robots between several countries including the USA, Japan, the UK, and the Netherlands. However, this study did not take into account cultural differences of assumptions about robots. As mentioned above, cultural differences of assumptions about robots should be investigated before discussing those on attitudes toward robots, in the current situation where images of robots are not so fixed as those of computers. Nomura et al., (2006a; However, these studies were limited to one culture, using Japanese data samples. Moreover, the questionnaire items used in the studies were not designed for cross-cultural studies. This chapter reports about cross-cultural research aiming at a more detailed investigation of assumptions about robots based on comparisons between Japan, Korea, and the USA.