Factors Influencing the Adoption of the Intentional Stance: Culture

Cultural values, norms, and worldviews are strongly engrained in our way of thinking, as we grow up in specific cultural contexts. This chapter explores the role of cultural background in the likelihood of adopting the Intentional Stance towards robots. As cultural values are forging individuals’ social cognition in general, they also affect their interactions with artificial agents. Drawing from literature on cultural psychology, we describe how collectivist and individualist cultures influence social behaviours and perceptions of robots. This chapter presents also studies comparing Italian and Singaporean participants’ engagement in joint attention with robots where cultural differences emerged, suggesting different thresholds for social engagement. Similarly, we report how cultural differences affected social inclusion of robots as in-group members. Furthermore, the chapter offers insights into the relationship between cultural values and anthropomorphism. The Integrative Framework of Anthropomorphism (IFA) discussed in the chapter highlights the complex interplay between cultural contexts, individual tendencies, and attributions of intentionality to robots. We discuss the necessity of considering cultural aspects in robot designs, so that robots can be well attuned to the users who might have diverse expectations and attitudes, stemming from various cultural backgrounds.