Customer Responses to Service Robot Anthropomorphism: An Integrative Perspective Based on Social Cognition and Intergroup Threat Theories

Drawing on social cognitive theory and intergroup threat theory, this study provides an integrated analysis of customer responses to robot anthropomorphism. Specifically, we conceptualize customer responses as operating through two parallel appraisal pathways: a positive cognitive-social evaluation pathway, reflected in perceived warmth and perceived competence, and a negative affective threat-based pathway, reflected in psychological risk and perceived human identity threat. Path analysis of data collected from 471 hotel customers reveals that anthropomorphism positively influences customers’ willingness to pay more, mediated by perceived warmth and competence. In contrast, anthropomorphism negatively influences customers’ willingness to use service robots, mediated by perceived psychological risk and perceived human identity threat. Furthermore, hotel scale (budget vs. upscale) weakens the positive effect of robot anthropomorphism on perceived warmth, whereas technology anxiety strengthens the negative effects of anthropomorphism on psychological risk and perceived human identity threat, thereby reducing customers’ willingness to use service robots.