This study discusses the moral concern exhibited toward the robots that are being introduced into society. Although much debate has focused on whether robots should be granted moral status, some of us do show concern for them as moral patients. We conducted three surveys in creating and validating a new scale called Moral Concern for Robot Scale (MCRS), designed to measure such concern. In Study 1, we created an initial version of MCRS, confirmed its content validity by experts, and explored its factor structure with 500 participants. We verified the three-factor structure derived in Study 1 by a confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 (n = 500). Study 2 also confirmed construct validity by authenticating correlations with other measures that were predicted to be theoretically relevant. Study 3 (n = 500) confirmed predictive validity using experimental vignette methodology. Specifically, MCRS positively influenced the willingness to engage in prosocial behavior toward a robot and better predicted it than other relevant scales. From the overall results, MCRS is demonstrated to be a valid and reliable instrument.

During the previous field study with a robot and its interaction with mall visitors, we observed a surprising event during which a leaflet-distributing robot was abused, although it was subsequently helped by one of its previous abusers. After analyzing 72.25 hours of video data, we identified 47 cases where a robot dropped a leaflet and classified them according to following three criteria: 1) interaction between the potential helper or others with the robot before it dropped the leaflet, 2) the nature of the interaction (abused or not), and 3) whether it was helped. Using the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM), we analyzed 19 cases where the robot was helped. We identified the following interaction process that started with individuals who paid attention to the robot, whether they had abusive or non-abusive interactions with it, whether they noticed its failure, and finally whether they helped it. The presence of others encouraged the person to focus on the robot, and the interactions with it led to helping, regardless whether the interaction was abusive. The absence of others when the robot dropped the leaflet encouraged helping. The findings of this study will motivate interaction designs for social robots that can leverage human help.

We reveal the process of children engaging in such serious abuse as kicking and punching robots. In study 1, we established a process model of robot abuse and used a qualitative analysis method specialized for time-series data: the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM). With the TEM method, we analyzed interactions from nine children who committed serious robot abuse from which we developed a multi-stage model: the abuse escalation model. The model has four stages: approach, mild abuse, physical abuse, and escalation. For each stage, we identified social guides (SGs), which are influencing events that fuel the stage. In study 2, we conducted a quantitative analysis to examine the effect of these SGs. We analyzed 12 hours of data that included 522 children who visited the observed area nearby the robot, coded their behaviors, and statistically tested whether the presence of each SG promoted the stage. Our analysis confirmed the correlations of four SGs and children's behaviors: the presence of other children related a new child to approach the robot (SG1); mild abuse by another child related a child to do mild abuse (SG2); physical abuse by another child related a child to conduct physical abuse (SG3); and encouragement from others related a child to escalate the abuse (SG5).

We developed a self-report measurement, Moral Concern for Robots Scale (MCRS), which measures whether people believe that a robot has moral standing, deserves moral care, and merits protection. The results of an online survey ( \pmbN = 200) confirmed the concurrent validity and predictive validity of the scale in the sense that the scale scores are successfully used to predict people's intentions for prosocial behaviors.

A series of studies were conducted as an exploratory survey to examine the possible roles of a robot as a partner in healthcare. The results show that Japanese people are willing to use a humanoid robot as an exercise partner in a variety of usage scenarios. In particular, a walking robot was found to be useful for socially anxious individuals, in that it can serve as a safe partner that is not evaluates them.

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No abstract available.