Abstract
This contribution to the journal Group. Interaction. Organisation. (GIO) describes different emotional reactions of older adults to Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) in different settings. Due to the demographic change, more older adults need support at home or in institutions. The use of robots to assist individuals at home or in institutions is seen as one possibility to address this societal challenge. SAR are increasingly being tested and used for older adults. Systematic reviews show the positive potential of SAR for older adults regarding (social-)psychological and physiological parameters, at the same time the use of SAR for older adults has triggered an intense ethical discussion. Emotions of users towards robots are brought to the fore, as they represent an important aspect of the acceptance and impact of SAR. Especially issues related to emotional attachment to the robot are critically discussed. In field tests conducted by the Institute for Aging Research (IAF) of the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST) with different SARs and different groups of persons and areas of application, a range of emotional reactions up to attachment of the different user groups to the robot were registered, applying the method of secondary analysis. It could be shown that socio-emotional needs of users can be satisfied by the SAR, and rejection can occur if these are not facilitated. However, emotional attachment must be considered in a differentiated way, since the use of SAR, especially with vulnerable persons, could also cause newly induced negative feelings despite functional attachment. When using SAR in practice it is important to collect all emotions of the users towards SAR at an early stage and to assess them regarding possible undesired effects like (too) strong emotional attachment. The presented explorative studies allow to define exemplary fields of application with positive potential, but also to describe ethically problematic situations in order to avoid them in the future.