Check-in at the Robo-desk: Effects of automated social presence on social cognition and service implications

The rise of humanoid robots in hospitality services accelerates the need to understand related consumer reactions. Four scenario-based experiments, building on social presence and social cognition theories, examine how humanoid robots (vs. self-service machines) shape consumer service perceptions vis-à-vis concurrent presence/absence of human staff. The influence of consumers' need for human interaction and technology readiness is also examined....