{"title":"To avoid disconnection or approach connection: Loneliness predicts social robot anthropomorphism via different social motivations in the UK and China","authors":"Zhuo Feng, Jianning Dang","doi":"10.1016/j.paid.2024.112979","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lonely people are often considered more likely to anthropomorphize social robots than the non-lonely; however, increasing evidence challenges this inference. By distinguishing between avoidance and approach social motivations, this study proposes a dual-pathway model of the association between loneliness and social robot anthropomorphism. According to this model, loneliness predicts robot anthropomorphism positively via high social avoidance motivation but negatively via low social approach motivation. We provided support for this model in 5 studies (2 pre-registered, <em>N</em> = 1575), and found that the positive pathway via avoidance social motivation was more prominent among British participants, whereas the negative pathway via approach social motivation was more prominent among Chinese participants. Varying levels of animism beliefs accounted for these cultural differences. Our findings enhance the current understanding of lonely people's motivational processes and shed light on the distinct social motivational orientations underlying anthropomorphism in different cultural contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48467,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Individual Differences","volume":"235 ","pages":"Article 112979"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Personality and Individual Differences","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886924004392","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Lonely people are often considered more likely to anthropomorphize social robots than the non-lonely; however, increasing evidence challenges this inference. By distinguishing between avoidance and approach social motivations, this study proposes a dual-pathway model of the association between loneliness and social robot anthropomorphism. According to this model, loneliness predicts robot anthropomorphism positively via high social avoidance motivation but negatively via low social approach motivation. We provided support for this model in 5 studies (2 pre-registered, N = 1575), and found that the positive pathway via avoidance social motivation was more prominent among British participants, whereas the negative pathway via approach social motivation was more prominent among Chinese participants. Varying levels of animism beliefs accounted for these cultural differences. Our findings enhance the current understanding of lonely people's motivational processes and shed light on the distinct social motivational orientations underlying anthropomorphism in different cultural contexts.
期刊介绍:
Personality and Individual Differences is devoted to the publication of articles (experimental, theoretical, review) which aim to integrate as far as possible the major factors of personality with empirical paradigms from experimental, physiological, animal, clinical, educational, criminological or industrial psychology or to seek an explanation for the causes and major determinants of individual differences in concepts derived from these disciplines. The editors are concerned with both genetic and environmental causes, and they are particularly interested in possible interaction effects.