Robots – The study “Are robots becoming unpopular? Changes in attitudes towards autonomous robotic systems in Europe” focusing on interviews of the participants was conducted in the European Union between 2012 and 2017. The study examined the changing attitude of the participants toward robots. More than 80,000 participants from 27 different countries were included in the study.
The highlights of the results:
- Attitudes towards robots became more negative between 2012 and 2017
- Attitudes towards robots assisting at work showed the strongest negative trend
- Women with lower education evaluated robots more negatively
- Countries with a larger share of older citizens evaluated robots more favorably.
The participant’s negative attitudes toward robots seem to correlate with the degree of interaction they have with them. Criticism of robots increased as the participants became more familiar with the robot. This seemed to occur regardless of how ‘human-like’ the robots look.
In the five years of the study, the attitudes of the participants took a definite negative turn. The big question is what is this going to mean in the years ahead? As more and more robots enter the workplace will this attitude change for the better or will the negative feelings continue to increase.
People are losing their jobs to machines, so it’s understandable that there would be more negative feelings about them. But also, thinking of my own experiences working with more and more automated systems, I just get frustrated that the machines never seem to work the way they’re supposed to. Robots make very unreliable co-workers.
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I agree with regards to job displacement. That is a threat to a large portion of the population. I think that machines are so frustrating because they aren’t very smart yet.
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That’s for sure. Given time, I know technology will improve and become more reliable. But right now, lots of people are worried about losing their jobs to robots, and to add insult to injury, the robots aren’t even that good at the jobs we’re giving them.
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I agree, but that is rapidly changing. As more robots enter the workplace their AI will improve as will people’s feelings towards working with them. I agree though that contrary to some predictions, I think robots/AI/automation is going to cost more jobs that they will create.
That said, I also feel that the trend toward more robots is inevitable.
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