Culture plays a fundamental role in shaping how individuals perceive and accept technology, influencing their willingness to adopt it. Social robots, as interactive agents, are subject to cultural variations in acceptance, yet existing Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) literature predominantly equates culture with nationality, overlooking more nuanced frameworks. This paper advocates for a non-geographical approach to culture, grounded in Hofstede’s model, specifically focusing on Uncertainty Avoidance (UA). The proposed model posits that UA exerts a moderating influence on the relationship between Perceived Control (PC) and social robot acceptance, such that the positive effect of PC is more pronounced for low-UA individuals and less so for high-UA individuals. This speculative analysis introduces novel perspectives for future empirical research, challenging conventional methodologies in the domain of cultural HRI studies.
Lapomarda, L., Barco, A., Datteri, E. (2026). A Non-geographical Approach to the Study of Culture-Mediated Acceptance of Social Robots. In Software Engineering and Formal Methods. SEFM 2024 Collocated Workshops ReacTS 2024 and CIFMA 2024, Aveiro, Portugal, November 4–5, 2024, Revised Selected Papers (pp.219-236). Springer-VerlagBerlin, Heidelberg [10.1007/978-3-031-94748-3_17].
A Non-geographical Approach to the Study of Culture-Mediated Acceptance of Social Robots
Lapomarda, Leonardo
;Datteri, Edoardo
2026
Abstract
Culture plays a fundamental role in shaping how individuals perceive and accept technology, influencing their willingness to adopt it. Social robots, as interactive agents, are subject to cultural variations in acceptance, yet existing Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) literature predominantly equates culture with nationality, overlooking more nuanced frameworks. This paper advocates for a non-geographical approach to culture, grounded in Hofstede’s model, specifically focusing on Uncertainty Avoidance (UA). The proposed model posits that UA exerts a moderating influence on the relationship between Perceived Control (PC) and social robot acceptance, such that the positive effect of PC is more pronounced for low-UA individuals and less so for high-UA individuals. This speculative analysis introduces novel perspectives for future empirical research, challenging conventional methodologies in the domain of cultural HRI studies.
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