Categorization of Employees' Fears about Working with Physical Robots

Abstract

The integration of physical robots into workplaces to work alongside humans is becoming more common. In addition to its benefits, working with robots also has negative consequences, such as fear. Fear is a powerful influencer of human thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. However, prior research has not provided a comprehensive categorization of employees' various fears about working with robots or studied the fears of employees who have actual experience of working with robots. Hence, we aimed to address these research gaps by collecting employees' descriptions of their fears using a qualitative questionnaire. Based on an analysis of 391 responses, we introduce a comprehensive categorization of employees' fears about working with robots. Our study contributes to prior research by identifying and explaining various fears about working with robots: job loss and role changes, additional work and costs, identity and self-development, humanity, ethics and decision-making, safety, unreliability, war and weapons, and robot takeover.