Exploring Response Strategies of Robotized Products in Problematic Situations: Analysis of Apology and Risk Communication Strategies

As the use of robotized products becomes more prevalent in real-world settings, users are confronted with unforeseen problematic situations. The response strategy of a robotized product can have a significant impact on mitigating negative perceptions of the product resulting from problematic situations. In this study, we introduce apology and risk communication strategies as potential response strategies for robotized products and explore their impact on user evaluations or attraction through experimental research. Our findings indicate that when a problem originates from the robotized product itself, the use of an apology strategy and an accommodative risk communication strategy can enhance users’ task attraction to the product, but do not affect their evaluation of the robot and social attraction to it. Conversely, when the problem is not caused by the robotized product, the use of a defensive risk communication strategy is associated with higher robot evaluation and greater user attraction compared to the use of an accommodative strategy. This study demonstrates that response strategies in problematic situations that people expect for robotized products are different from those for humans.