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Gender characteristics of service robots can influence customer decisions

While service robots with male characteristics can be more persuasive when interacting with some women who have a low sense of power, “cute” design features — such as big eyes and raised cheeks — affect both men and women similarly, according to new research from a team in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management.

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. Hotels could also leverage these findings when deciding which gender characteristics to use in robots that persuade customers to upgrade their rooms, according to the researchers. Because the findings in the first study showed that portrayed gender in robots primarily affected customers with a low sense of power, the researchers recruited 156 university students in the United States.

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