Beyond Compliance: How Age and Coping Strategies Shape Acceptance of Dominant Socially Assistive Robots

Abstract

Socially assistive robots hold promise for delivering health guidance, yet the impact of robot communication style on user acceptance across the lifespan remains underexplored. We examined how robotic dominance and age-related factors influence the willingness to seek advice from robots during a health-literacy task. Participants received advice from the robot, and we measured their advice-seeking and advice-following behaviors, subjective evaluations of the robot, and psychological status. Results revealed that while advice-following rates were unaffected by dominance level, lowdominance robots were perceived as significantly more competent and sociable, and increased overall advice-seeking willingness. When the high- and low-dominance robots were presented simultaneously (forced choice), younger adults showed a significant preference for the low-dominance robot. Conversely, older adults provided generally higher evaluations for both robots. The only circumstance in which the highdominance robot was preferred was among individuals relying on disengagement coping strategies, who showed a higher likelihood of selecting it for domestic use. These findings underscore the necessity of personalizing robotic communication strategies based on user age and coping mechanisms to ensure long-term acceptance.