A Multi-Disciplinary Study Comparing Cultural Attitudes Toward Robots in India, Poland and Japan

We investigate differences in cultural attitudes toward robots in India, Poland and Japan using a combination of scientific literature, science fiction, and in-the-wild childrobot interaction experiments. We use a brief survey of scientific literature to analyze the differences in cultural attitudes in each country, tying this in with a brief survey and discussion of popular science fiction literature in each country. We describe and compare 8 in-the-wild child-robot group interaction experiments taking place in these 3 countries in order to identify similarities, including anthropomorphization and fear reactions. This paper highlights the differences between larger cultural contexts, such as national culture, and smaller, local cultural contexts, and the need for further research into the influence of both on real-world human-robot interaction.