Attitudes Towards Social Robots Scale

Ever wondered how you truly feel about robots? Take this test to find out.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | March 21, 2024

Social robots are robots designed to connect, interact and communicate with humans by emulating human behaviors such as speech, gestures and facial expressions. These robots are typically equipped with sensors, artificial intelligence and sometimes physical features—like a humanoid appearance or animal-like characteristics—to facilitate human-robot interaction.

Assessing our own attitudes towards social robots becomes increasingly important as social robots become more integrated into various aspects of society, such as healthcare, education or customer service.

The Attitudes Towards Social Robots Scale consists of 8 items designed to measure attitudes towards social robots, including how one would feel interacting with them in daily life, receiving care and assistance from them, living with them and whether they could possess consciousness.

This test can help you determine whether you have a favorable attitude towards social robots, feel neutral about them or completely reject their use.

You can take this test here. Please follow all of the steps to receive your results.

Step 1: Rate the following statements based on how much you agree with them on a scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree.

1. I would appreciate an intelligent robot as a friend and helper at my side.

2. A nurse–robot that takes care of me and looks after me in my old age would be fine.

3. A human-like robot would be allowed to look after my parents when they get old.

4. I would let a robot take care of my children.

5. I believe robots could one day develop a consciousness comparable to humans.

6. If robots develop a consciousness, then there should be rights for them comparable to human rights.

7. If there were robots that were indistinguishable from humans, I would consider marrying a robot.

8. I could also imagine sexual contact with robots.

Step 2: Enter your age, gender, region, and first name so we can provide you with a detailed report that compares your test scores to people similar to you.

What is your age?

What is your gender?

What region of the world do you live in?

What is your first name?

Step 3: Check to make sure you've provided answers to all of the statements/questions above. Once you've done that, click the button below to send your responses to Awake Therapy's Lead Psychologist, Mark Travers, Ph.D. He will provide you with an overview of how you scored relative to others (all answers are anonymized and confidential to protect users' privacy). He can also answer any follow-up questions you may have.

References: Niewrzol, D. B., & Ostermann, T. (2024). Development and Validation of the Attitudes towards Social Robots Scale. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(3), 286 doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12030286