Partners or Opponents? How Mindset Shapes Consumers’ Attitude Toward Anthropomorphic Artificial Intelligence Service Robots
研究消费者心态（竞争vs合作）如何影响其对拟人化AI服务机器人的态度，发现竞争心态者更不喜欢拟人化机器人，而合作心态者则相反，并检验了心理亲近感的中介作用和互动距离的调节作用。
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) service robots is on the rise. With service frontlines gradually shifting to human–robot interactions, the question of whether the anthropomorphism of robots facilitates or constrains consumers’ experiences has emerged. This article focuses on the individual factor “consumer mindset” (competition vs collaboration) and investigates how it impacts consumers’ attitudes toward anthropomorphic AI robots during service delivery. Across three studies, we confirm our main prediction that competitive mindset consumers respond less favorably to anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) AI robots, whereas collaborative mindset consumers respond more favorably to anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) AI robots. We test the mediating role of perceived psychological closeness and the moderating role of interaction distance to explain the underlying mechanism. Our findings provide theoretical insights into the mixed results of previous studies of service robot anthropomorphism and have practical implications for service agencies using frontline robots.