Theories relevant to understanding service robots and their safety roles
| Theory or concept | Key works | Essence | Relevance to service robots and physical safety |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hierarchy of needs theory | Maslow (1943) | Five types of human needs drive individual behavior: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. People only move to the next, higher-level need when a lower-level need has been addressed | Through addressing the fundamental human safety need in a pandemic, service robots enable people to consume services that address needs higher up the hierarchy |
| Law of contagion | Nemeroff and Rozin (1994); Frazer (1959) | People and objects that come into contact may influence each other through the transfer of their properties. The influence continues after the physical contact has ended and may be permanent | The servicescape has a large potential to transfer germs and residues from objects or other customers to a focal customer. By eliminating inter-human contact and touch interfaces, service robots limit the possibility of viral contagion |
| Evolutionary human motives theory | Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013) | Deep-seated evolutionary motives influence consumer behavior, albeit not always in obvious or conscious ways. Fundamental motives include evading physical harm, avoiding disease, making friends, attaining status, acquiring a mate, keeping a mate, and caring for family | The motive of disease avoidance explains that in situations like pandemics, consumers behave in ways designed to thwart viral transmission, such as wearing face masks, and hand-washing, but also being more open to using service robots |
| Signaling theory | Spence (1974) | Individuals search for observable signs (i.e. signals) that give them information about expected outcomes (e.g. is the service provider concerned about my health?) | The use of explicit safety signals performed by a service robot, such as taking over temperate checks or face mask enforcement, can reduce consumer uncertainty in terms of health-related fears |
| Perceived risk theory | Jacoby and Kaplan (1972) | Perceived risk refers to customers' perceived uncertainty with regards to a (purchase of a) product or service, which may influence their purchase intention. The strength of this relationship may depend on personal predispositions such as risk aversion | As a dimension of perceived risk, physical risk indicates that a product or service may be harmful or injurious to one's health. Using service robots rather than engaging with human employees reduces physical risk perceptions and may open up consumers to interact with a service robot and (keep) consuming the service |
| Regulatory focus theory | Higgins et al. (1994) | People can pursue goals with either a promotion or a prevention focus; the former focuses on the pursuit of aspirations, while the latter is concerned with safety and security needs. One's focus determines their sensitivity to positive or negative outcomes | Robots provide a safety cue that is especially effective to increase attitude and loyalty towards the service provider when individuals have a prevention focus rather than a promotion focus. This condition applies more to consumers in times of a health crisis than in times of prosperity |
| Job demands- resources model | Bakker and Demerouti (2007) | Each job has demands and resources; the former can lead to a health-impairment process (e.g. chronic, intensive demands may lead to burnout), while the latter stimulates work engagement and may buffer any demand-induced stress effects | Pandemic-related concerns are a demand that strain consumers and may lead to withdrawal from service transactions. Service robots are a resource to customers because they alleviate the concern for contamination and enable service encounters with less limitations |
| Theory of AI job replacement | Huang and Rust (2018) | AI developments can be categorized in four levels of intelligence in service tasks (i.e. mechanical, analytical, intuitive and empathetic intelligence). Robots will steadily develop these intelligences and (may) take over associated human tasks | The intelligence level of the service robot may determine which safety role the robot can fulfill in practice |
| Theory or concept | Key works | Essence | Relevance to service robots and physical safety |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hierarchy of needs theory | Five types of human needs drive individual behavior: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. People only move to the next, higher-level need when a lower-level need has been addressed | Through addressing the fundamental human safety need in a pandemic, service robots enable people to consume services that address needs higher up the hierarchy | |
| Law of contagion | People and objects that come into contact may influence each other through the transfer of their properties. The influence continues after the physical contact has ended and may be permanent | The servicescape has a large potential to transfer germs and residues from objects or other customers to a focal customer. By eliminating inter-human contact and touch interfaces, service robots limit the possibility of viral contagion | |
| Evolutionary human motives theory | Deep-seated evolutionary motives influence consumer behavior, albeit not always in obvious or conscious ways. Fundamental motives include evading physical harm, avoiding disease, making friends, attaining status, acquiring a mate, keeping a mate, and caring for family | The motive of disease avoidance explains that in situations like pandemics, consumers behave in ways designed to thwart viral transmission, such as wearing face masks, and hand-washing, but also being more open to using service robots | |
| Signaling theory | Individuals search for observable signs (i.e. signals) that give them information about expected outcomes (e.g. is the service provider concerned about my health?) | The use of explicit safety signals performed by a service robot, such as taking over temperate checks or face mask enforcement, can reduce consumer uncertainty in terms of health-related fears | |
| Perceived risk theory | Perceived risk refers to customers' perceived uncertainty with regards to a (purchase of a) product or service, which may influence their purchase intention. The strength of this relationship may depend on personal predispositions such as risk aversion | As a dimension of perceived risk, physical risk indicates that a product or service may be harmful or injurious to one's health. Using service robots rather than engaging with human employees reduces physical risk perceptions and may open up consumers to interact with a service robot and (keep) consuming the service | |
| Regulatory focus theory | People can pursue goals with either a promotion or a prevention focus; the former focuses on the pursuit of aspirations, while the latter is concerned with safety and security needs. One's focus determines their sensitivity to positive or negative outcomes | Robots provide a safety cue that is especially effective to increase attitude and loyalty towards the service provider when individuals have a prevention focus rather than a promotion focus. This condition applies more to consumers in times of a health crisis than in times of prosperity | |
| Job demands- resources model | Each job has demands and resources; the former can lead to a health-impairment process (e.g. chronic, intensive demands may lead to burnout), while the latter stimulates work engagement and may buffer any demand-induced stress effects | Pandemic-related concerns are a demand that strain consumers and may lead to withdrawal from service transactions. Service robots are a resource to customers because they alleviate the concern for contamination and enable service encounters with less limitations | |
| Theory of AI job replacement | AI developments can be categorized in four levels of intelligence in service tasks (i.e. mechanical, analytical, intuitive and empathetic intelligence). Robots will steadily develop these intelligences and (may) take over associated human tasks | The intelligence level of the service robot may determine which safety role the robot can fulfill in practice |
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