Does Repetition Affect Acceptance? A Social Robot Adoption Model for Technologically-Savvy Users in the Caribbean

Abstract

There is little research on use and adoption factors for social robots in the Caribbean. In one pilot study, the Zenbo companion robot was used to evaluate potential social robot use in a Caribbean setting. An informal observation from that study was the existence of communication failure–participants frequently repeated commands to the robot. Based on this observation, we have undertaken this study to identify the factors that affect robot adoption among technologically-savvy Caribbean users (undergraduate Computer Science and Information Technology (IT) students) and create a technology adoption model for this type of user. Our model shows that communication failure, manifested as repetition, has no effect on technology acceptance. Additionally, social attitudes towards robots, like the perception of competence and warmth, also have no effect on adoption. This social robot adoption model is the first of its kind for the Caribbean and helps contextualize factors that can affect social robots’ adoption in the region.