Customer Responses to (Im)Moral Behavior of Service Robots - Online Experiments in a Retail Setting

Abstract

Service robots play an increasingly important role in the service sector. Drawing on moral psychology research, moral foundations theory as well as the computers-as-social-actors (CASA) paradigm, this experimental study containing of four online experiments examines the extent to which the moral or immoral behavior of a service robot affects customer responses during a service interaction. This study contributes to design science by defining, conceptualizing and operationalizing morality of service robots and developing a corresponding vignette as basis to manipulate (im)moral robotic behavior in a retail setting. To investigate possible effects of the robot’s appearance, we tested our hypotheses with two different robots, i.e., a humanoid robot and an android robot. Results from the online experiment indicate that the (im)moral behavior of service robots at the customer interface has a significant effect on customers’ trust and customers’ ethical concerns towards the robot.