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How do older adults react to social robots’ offspring-like voices

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  • Zhou, Cheng
  • Dong, Wanqing

Abstract

Social robots are being developed as a technological solution to alleviate older adults' loneliness due to separation from their offspring. This study explores how and why offspring-like voices affect older adults' acceptance of social robots from an auditory perspective, which differ from the visual aspects of human–robot interactions. Three scenario-based studies are conducted among a large number of cognitively intact older adults. Our findings reveal a positive correlation between the offspring-like voices of social robots and older adults’ acceptance of the robots. Further, social identity served as a psychological mechanism mediating the effect of offspring-like voices on the acceptance of older adults, whereas spatial distance acted as a positive moderator of these direct and indirect effects. Notably, older adults were more willing to accept social robots with grandchildren-like voices. These insights offer theoretical contributions to the literature on social identity theory and the similarity attraction paradigm, as well as practical implications for social robot design and development, thereby contributing to the evolving landscape of human–robot interaction acceptance.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Cheng & Dong, Wanqing, 2025. "How do older adults react to social robots’ offspring-like voices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:364:y:2025:i:c:s0277953624009997
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117545
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    1. Feinian Chen & Guangya Liu, 2012. "The Health Implications of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 67(1), pages 99-112.
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    3. Xu, Hongwei, 2019. "Physical and mental health of Chinese grandparents caring for grandchildren and great-grandparents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 106-116.
    4. Sumantra Sarkar & Anthony Vance & Balasubramaniam Ramesh & Menelaos Demestihas & Daniel Thomas Wu, 2020. "The Influence of Professional Subculture on Information Security Policy Violations: A Field Study in a Healthcare Context," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1240-1259, December.
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    1. Xiao, Limin & Han, Xiaoyun, 2026. "Enhancing patient value co-creation via AI-enabled cases disclosure: The role of uncertainty reduction, patient empowerment and risk aversion," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).

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