Tourists prefer competent appearance robot over warm one: The effect of busyness perception

Abstract

This article indicates that perceived busyness affects tourists' appearance preferences for service robots in tourist scenarios. Results from three studies reveal that tourists who feel busy will prefer competent-appearance to warm-appearance service robots. This relationship is serial mediated by efficiency motivation and tourists’ functional value focus, and it is moderated by time orientation. Specifically, we find that the effect occurs only among tourists with high present-orientation and low future-orientation but not among tourists with high future-orientation and low present-orientation. Our study examines tourists' preferences for the appearance of service robots from an individual perspective, providing recommendations for the hotel and tourism industry when considering the implementation of service robots.