How robot servers tempt unhealthy diets

Substituting humans in the service industry could backfire without adequate reasoning, a new study finds

By Putro Harnowo, Senior Content Manager, China Business Knowledge @ CUHK

Automation is the backbone of modern industry. It streamlines processes, enhances efficiency, drives innovation, and even starts preparing and serving food for humans. International restaurants have deployed robot chefs, and more eateries have opted for robots to take orders and serve food. Business owners no longer worry about sick days as the machines are available 24/7.

Cost-saving and efficiency are undoubtedly sensible considerations to take in the competitive markets. However, many argue that patrons come to restaurants to feel connected to other humans instead of interacting with touchscreens or watching mechanical arms. The loss of human connection could lead to adverse consequences.

“Robotic service encounters can unintentionally lead people to choose unhealthy foods, partly because interacting with robots generates an exclusionary experience,” says Choi Sungwoo, Assistant Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Professor Choi argues that exclusionary experiences can threaten customers’ need to belong, one of the fundamental human needs that refers to the intrinsic desire to form and maintain interpersonal relationships. This concept is rooted in the idea that social connections are essential for emotional well-being and overall mental health. For example, those who feel excluded tend to show greater interest in meeting new people, conform to others’ choices, and behave prosocially to fulfil their affiliation needs.

Surprisingly, such exclusionary experiences were found to be diminished when consumers interacted with a service robot with human-like features. Professor Choi and Lisa C. Wan, an Associate Professor in the same department, as well as Anna S. Mattila of the Pennsylvania State University, investigated the driving forces behind this in new research titled Unintended indulgence in robotic service encounters.

“The impact of robotic service encounters on consumer indulgence is particularly pronounced in solo consumption, compared to group settings,” Professor Choi adds.

Service exclusion and unhealthy food choices

Many studies have shown that negative emotions influence people to spend more and consume more hedonic foods to ameliorate their feelings. Professor Choi and his collaborators found that consumers experiencing social exclusion tend to have their compliance with self-regulatory behaviours diminish.

“Exclusionary experiences in consumer-robot interactions during robotic service encounters may lead to emotional distress (e.g., loneliness) and undermine one’s self-control,” he says. “This, in turn, triggers consumers’ situational need to belong, resulting in a tendency toward indulgence.”

“Robotic service encounters can unintentionally lead people to choose unhealthy foods, partly because interacting with robots generates an exclusionary experience.”

Professor Choi Sungwoo

However, robots that are designed to look or act like humans, or called humanoids, appear to create social connections and have proven to enhance consumer satisfaction when interacting with robots. Consumers are less likely to indulge when interacting with a humanoid service robot because such interactions fulfil the situational need to belong.

“This can be presented most strongly by appearance, such as facial features, body shape, and communication medium via voice. Basically, if non-humanoid robots integrate these features, they should be classified as humanoid,” says Professor Choi. “Given that, one of the possible ways for non-humanoids to reduce indulgence would be to design their interfaces (e.g., order taking) to be as human-like as possible.”

How can eating together help?

To come to this conclusion, Professor Choi and his collaborators carried out a set of experiments. The first study involved 233 participants in the US via an online research platform, Prolific. They were asked to imagine visiting a restaurant served by a humanoid robot, a non-humanoid robot, or a human waitress. The result showed that participants expressed a greater intention to order dessert when interacting with a non-humanoid robot than a humanoid robot or human staff.

The second study tested the impact of robotic service encounters in a real setting at a university cafeteria in Hong Kong. 118 participants were told that the cafeteria was testing a service robot as a new ordering platform and were asked to order individually. Participants who were ordered via a non-humanoid robot were more likely to choose a soft drink or indulgent option than those ordered via a humanoid robot.

But what if customers can fulfil this social need directly, like eating together with friends or family? The researchers found that eating together can diminish the drawbacks of robot service, as the presence of others influences customers to focus on their eating experience.

This is shown in the third study involving 497 participants in the US on Prolific. Participants were asked to imagine visiting a restaurant alone or with a group of four. Those who dined alone indicated a greater likelihood of ordering dessert when the server was a non-humanoid robot, but this tendency did not occur in a group setting.

Different designs for different menus

As dining alone, service robots, and healthy diets have become global trends, Professor Choi suggests restaurants promote a better experience by deploying proper strategies.

“To create a healthier dining environment, our findings suggest that it is crucial to make consumers feel ‘included’ in a service setting,” he says. “Thus, if a restaurant deploys service robots at its front stage, they may want to programme or design the robots as human-like or encourage human staff to be more welcoming and friendlier to customers so that people would not feel excluded or left out.”

Restaurants may also consider providing different menus for different services. For instance, pairing healthy foods with a humanoid robot or a human server might be more effective than pairing healthy foods with a non-humanoid robot. On the contrary, dessert shops, fast-food chains, all-you-can-eat restaurants, or the like might benefit from utilising non-humanoid robots to improve sales.

Establishments focusing on solo diners may consider using humanoid robots in their service. For those that only have non-humanoid robots, one strategy could involve integrating humanlike features, such as a smiling face, a friendly voice, and movement, to diminish the sensation of service exclusion and guide consumers to make fewer indulgent choices. Seating arrangements could also strategically position consumers closer to others, addressing their inherent need for social connection.

Finally, Professor Choi notes that the need to belong manifests similarly across different cultures, as it could be evoked by the lack of “humanness” in robotic service encounters. “Both Asian and Western customers would feel the same ‘exclusion’, such as not being welcomed by another person in this situation,” he says.

“In fact, one of the studies reported was conducted in Hong Kong, and the other two were in the US. The results were replicated in the two different pools of samples, indicating no cross-cultural differences in the effects of robotic service encounters.”