Validity and Reliability of the Chinese Version of Robot Anxiety Scale in Chinese Adults

With increasing use of robots in social life, individuals need to interact with robots more frequently, and user-anxiety about robots has attracted an extensive research attention. However, this topic has not been explored as much in China. To provide a scale for research on robot anxiety in China, this study translated and examined the reliability and validity of the Robot Anxiety Scale (RAS). The results showed that the Chinese version of RAS had an acceptable content validity. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed that only one factor was extracted in this study, and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) verified the factor structure, with the model-fitting index reaching an acceptable standard: chi(2)/df = 3.26, SRMR = .02, CFI = .99, GFI = .96, TLI = .98, RMSEA = .06. These findings were cross validated using Rasch measurement, in addition to further investigation of other RAS psychometric properties under the Rasch framework. Moreover, criterion validity analysis results also showed that robot anxiety was significantly positively correlated with state anxiety, trait anxiety, and negative emotions, while robot anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with trust in automation and positive emotions. In conclusion, the Chinese version of RAS is an effective tool for measuring robot anxiety in China.