Trust me, I’m a robot: relational determinants of social robot acceptance among university students

Purpose Although social robots are increasingly being used in higher education‚ the relational antecedents of students’ acceptance of these robots remain unexplored. This study re-conceptualises the technology acceptance model (TAM) for social robots by shifting the theoretical focus from utilitarian beliefs toward the relational quality of the human–robot interaction (HRI), positioning trust‚ satisfaction and rapport as main relational antecedents of students’ attitudes and behavioural intentions toward social robots. The study also examines the moderating effects of user motivation‚ empathy‚ risk aversion and technology readiness on the attitude–behavioural intention relationship. Design/methodology/approach Cluster sampling was used to define the sample‚ which comprised 900 university students from six public universities in Greece. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted with AMOS 29 to test the proposed model. Findings Trust‚ satisfaction and rapport are strong positive predictors of student attitude toward social robots‚ which in turn positively influences students’ behavioural intention to use social robots. User motivation‚ empathy and technology readiness motivators (optimism and innovativeness) strengthen the relationship between attitude and behavioural intention towards social robots‚ while risk aversion and technology readiness inhibitors (discomfort and insecurity) attenuate this relationship. Research limitations/implications Despite the contributions achieved here‚ there are some limitations that deserve to be mentioned and suggest promising paths for future research. Because this research used a cross-sectional design‚ it does not allow for causality and the possibility to observe how attitudes and intentions towards social robots develop over time. Future studies with longitudinal designs are needed to test whether the identified antecedents for establishing a relationship with social robots (i.e. trust‚ satisfaction‚ rapport) can increase or decrease with repeated social robot interactions (Donnermann et al.‚ 2022). Practical implications Given the tight connection of trust‚ satisfaction and rapport with students’ perceptions‚ it is important that institutions also consider the quality of the HRI when deciding whether or not to use social robots as teaching assistants. This includes the robots’ ability to build trust through reliable behaviour‚ provide satisfaction through responsive interaction and achieve rapport through attentive‚ empathic and positive communication (Buhmann et al., 2026; Lemon and Dhanesh, 2026). Originality/value This study adds to the literature by being one of the first to conceptualise social robot acceptance as a relational phenomenon‚ positioning trust‚ satisfaction and rapport as core antecedents of attitude and behavioural intention‚ a theoretical move entirely absent from existing social robot acceptance and educational HRI research. Beyond the direct effects‚ this study introduces two theoretically grounded categories of individual-level moderators: psychological-relational moderators (motivation‚ empathy and risk aversion) and technology-related moderators (technology readiness)‚ which collectively provide a coherent and empirically novel account of the boundary conditions governing social robot acceptance among university students.