Bernd Schmitt from the Columbia University (US) presented his work on consumer perceptions and behaviors to robot and cyborg technologies in the services industries in our <link marketing forschung research-seminar-series>Research Seminar Series.

In the course of his presentation, Bernd Schmitt elaborated on reasons for how people perceive and behave toward robot and cyborg technologies based on psychological and philosophical perspectives. On the basis of his empirical studies, he concluded that it seems to depend, in part, on people’s considerations of human nature and the perceived differences between human and machine. Some studies suggest that people are “naïve dualists,” believing that machines cannot have a “mind” or a “soul” the same way humans do, which seems to be due to emotional traits (“human warmth”) rather than more cognitive traits (“competence”). Also, he provided implications for integrating machine-like technologies into our bodies and minds.