Willingness to accept social robots in museums: an exploratory factor analysis according to visitor profile

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this exploratory study is to identify the factors that influence the acceptance of social robots in museum environments and determine if this influence depends on the visitor's profile (age, gender, education and occupation).Design/methodology/approachData collected from an electronic questionnaire include 433 responses from Spanish visitors. The authors subjected the variables proposed by De Kervenoael et al. (2020) adapted to museums. The initial descriptive analysis only showed significant differences by age (under or over 30 years old). Based on these previous results, an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to test the applicability of the questionnaire to museums. After identifying the factors, the authors applied an ANOVA test to determine whether there are age-related differences between the factors related to robot acceptance in museums.FindingsThe authors developed a multidimensional instrument for measuring willingness to accept social robots in museum contexts. Willingness is determined by three factors: museum visitor experience (which is a factor specific to museums), empathy and personal engagement (which are both usually relevant in other tourist sectors as well). The younger individuals (under 30 years old) have a higher degree of acceptance than do visitors over 30.Originality/valueSocial robot use in museums is still very low, so the key factors for their acceptance have yet to be ascertained. The specific skills of social robots could prove to be a major draw for young people and contribute significantly to the future of museums.

Cultural tourist and user experience with artificial intelligence: a holistic perspective from the Industry 5.0 approach

“…The roundtable guide considered previous studies, and it was divided into three blocks: (1) the functionality of AI (Pinillos et al, 2016;Wu and Cheng, 2018;Wirtz et al, 2018;Ivanov et al, 2018;Tussyadiah and Park, 2018;Ivanov et al, 2019;Li et al, 2021), (2) the contact of AI with users (Primawati, 2018;Tussyadiah and Park, 2018;Gaia et al, 2019;Fuentes-Moraleda et al, 2021) and (3) the co-experience dimension of AI (Heerink et al, 2010;Van Doorn et al, 2017;Stock and Merkle, 2018).…”

“…The literature review reveals that no study has investigated visitors' and managers' perceptions of AI applications in museums and cultural organisations from the 5.0 perspective. Recent research approaches AI implementation in cultural organisations (museums) from the users' perspectives and a quantitative prism (Webster and Ivanov, 2022;Fuentes-Moraleda et al, 2021). Industry 5.0 is a new concept, and there is little literature around it.…”

Editorial: Special selection on contemporary digital culture and reading

“…Hsu and Liang (2022) developed a universal game-based blended museum learning service and showed that it engaged museum visitors and promoted their return visits. Readers may also be interested in reading our earlier articles on the use of virtual reality in museums to engage users (Lo et al , 2019) and social robots in museums (Fuentes-Moraleda et al , 2022).…”

Guest editorial: Social robots, services and applications

“…Edwards et al (2022) discussed the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. Fuentes-Moraleda et al (2022) presented an exploratory study of a multidimensional instrument for measuring willingness to accept social robots in museum contexts. Tung and Campos (2022) introduced a social robot app called the Music Buddy that can play situational music based on users' electroencephalogram data.…”