Perception of Society’s Trust in Care Robots by Public Opinion Leaders

Abstract

The rapid demographic shift toward a greater percentage of the elderly population increases the need for welfare services. Welfare technology and especially care robots can be regarded as an important measure to counteract such demographic challenges. However, when implementing new technologies, structured information is of immense importance to develop societal trust.Frequently, research addresses trust solely at the level of the end-user. However, trust at the level of opinion leaders and political decision-makers is also relevant as they are catalysts for trust. This study aims to detect the perceived trust level of users from the viewpoint of opinion leaders (politicians, insurance organizations, and media) in the Swedish, Finnish, and German society. Furthermore, this study uses qualitative expert interviews and identifies four trust categories: trust in the health care system, trust in regulations, trust in technology, and interpersonal trust. The findings stress that targeting only the end-users is not sufficient for developing technology trust in society.

Adopting the service system view toward successful implementation of assistive technologies

“…The belief that care should be carried out manually often causes negative attitudes toward ATs 13,24 . This is frequently discussed with the phrase “warm (human) care versus cold (robot) care” 4 or “a warm touch versus a cold touch.” 25 The negative public image of, or societal trust in, robots also affects the acceptance of robotic AT, 11 whereas the experience of using robotic ATs could change attitudes, not only for care workers, but also for older adults, even those with dementia 26 . These issues show that focusing only on technology is not sufficient.…”

“…functionally poor) reasons, sociotechnical challenges, such as care culture and mismatches with service processes, are substantial barriers that hinder technology adoption. [11][12][13][14][15] Compared with medical devices, ATs tend to be used for longer periods of time in the daily lives of older adults and in care workplaces, which underlines the importance of the sociotechnical aspect of ATs.…”