This study aims to examine how guest–robot interaction shapes the objectified perception of hotel frontline employees, emphasizing the mediating role of perceived work substitution and the moderating roles of human uniqueness concern and gender.
Drawing on role congruity theory, survey data from 374 Chinese hotel guests were analyzed using PROCESS Models 4, 59 and 76 to test mediation, moderation and combined moderated mediation effects.
Guest–robot interaction increased both perceived work substitution and objectification, with substitution mediating this relationship. High human uniqueness concern intensified the substitution–objectification link, suggesting a defensive dehumanization process driven by anxiety over human distinctiveness. Low-concern guests adopted an acceptance-oriented, posthuman view that treated humans and robots as complementary. Gender also influenced these patterns: men showed stronger associations across paths, while women’s relational orientation reduced objectifying responses. The combined model confirmed these effects, highlighting psychological and gender-based differences in automation-related dehumanization.
Hotels should maintain clear distinctions between human and robotic roles to emphasize collaboration rather than replacement. Managers can design interactions that highlight employees’ empathy, adaptability and creativity to preserve the human dimension of service. Communication strategies should portray robots as partners who enhance meaningful human work and be tailored to gendered expectations by appealing to men’s efficiency focus and women’s preference for relational engagement.
This study advances role congruity theory in human–robot contexts by integrating human uniqueness concern and gender into a moderated mediation framework. It identifies perceived work substitution as the central cognitive mechanism linking guest–robot interaction to objectification and uncovers defensive, acceptance-based and gender-differentiated pathways through which automation reshapes guest perceptions of human labor.
