In the present study, we compared Japanese and German participants' perceptions of social robots. To do so, participants from both cultural backgrounds evaluated two types of service robots designed for use in the smart home context. One of the prototypes featured a rather technical appearance, whereas the other prototype featured a newly designed social robot head. Against our predictions, Japanese and German participants evaluated both robot types similarly. Japanese participants generally showed a stronger tendency to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents and attributed more mind, particularly on the experience dimension, to both robot types than German participants. Nonetheless, Japanese and German participants attributed similar levels of agency to both robot types. Unexpectedly, Japanese participants perceived the robots even as less humanlike than German participants. As predicted, Japanese participants reported less attitudinal robot acceptance and tended to show less trust toward both robot types than Germans. Japanese and Germans indicated similar levels of robot anxiety, perceived uncanniness, and robot likeability. Japanese and German participants generally perceived the robots rather as machines and tools than as human companions. Especially German participants wanted to use the robots for rather safe, boring, and simple tasks that do not require any direct interaction with them. Japanese and German participants were not yet familiar with robots and showed less positive attitudes toward them than widely believed (e.g., [1]). Implications how to gain a more realistic view on users' perceptions of robots to enable a fruitful and comfortable HRI are discussed.
