A systematic review of attitudes, anxiety, acceptance, and trust towards social robots

As social robots become more common, there is a need to understand how people perceive and interact with such technology. This systematic review seeks to estimate people’s attitudes toward, trust in, anxiety associated with, and acceptance of social robots; as well as factors that are associated with these beliefs. Ninety-seven studies were identified with a combined sample of over 13,000 participants and a standardized score was computed for each in order to represent the valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and magnitude (on a scale from 1 to − 1) of people’s beliefs about robots. Potential moderating factors such as the robots’ domain of application and design, the type of exposure to the robot, and the characteristics of potential users were also investigated. The findings suggest that people generally have positive attitudes towards social robots and are willing to interact with them. This finding may challenge some of the existing doubt surrounding the adoption of robotics in social domains of application but more research is needed to fully understand the factors that influence attitudes

Apelos racionais e emocionais na propaganda de medicamentos de prescrição: estudo de um remédio para emagrecer Rational and emotional appeals in prescription drug advertising: study of a weight loss drug

A propaganda Direta ao Consumidor (DC) de medicamentos encoraja as pessoas a perguntar aos médicos por determinados medicamentos e tratamentos que requerem prescrição médica. Para aumentar o poder persuasivo, modelos de propaganda recomendam equiparar os apelos (racionais e/ou emocionais) à atitude do consumidor sobre o produto (cognitiva e/ou afetiva). Essa recomendação gera controvérsias no âmbito da propaganda DC. Apelos emocionais seriam sempre inadequados, embora freqüentemente utilizados, nesse tipo de propaganda. Devido à inexistência de evidência empírica sobre a perspectiva do consumidor, empreendeu-se um levantamento descritivo com objetivo de avaliar: i) os componentes da atitude sobre medicamentos; ii) a atitude e as intenções comportamentais frente a anúncios DC (um com apelos racionais e outro com apelos emocionais). Escolheu-se um medicamento de prescrição para emagrecer. Constatou-se atitude predominantemente cognitiva sobre o produto e atitude e intenção comportamental mais favorável frente a anúncio racional. Cognição negativa sobre o produto foi marcante, anulando o poder persuasivo de apelos emocionais.<br>The Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising of medicines encourages people to ask doctors for certain medicines and treatments that require medical prescription. In order to enhance their persuasive power, advertising models recommend matching the appeals (rational and/or emotional) to the consumer's attitude (cognitive and/or affective) towards the product. This recommendation leads to controversies in the context of DTC advertising. Emotional appeals, although frequently used, would always be inadequate in that kind of advertising. In absence of empiric evidence of the consumer's perspective, a descriptive research was undertaken with the objective of evaluating: i) the components of the attitude toward medicines; ii) attitude and behavioral intentions in response to DTC ads (one appealing to reason and the other appealing to emotion). A prescription weight loss drug was chosen for this purpose. The results revealed a predominantly cognitive attitude toward the product and an attitude and behavioral intention more favorable to the rational ad. Negative cognition about the product played an outstanding role canceling the persuasive power of emotional appeals