How human users engage with consumer robots? A dual model of psychological ownership and trust to explain post-adoption behaviours

Consumer robots are technically evolving and have a growing presence in our daily lives with enhanced interactive capabilities. While there is insightful literature on robot adoption, so far, research has done less to examine the post-adoption interaction of human-consumer robots. Drawing on trust in technology model and psychological ownership theory, this study proposes a conceptual dual model to explain robot users’ post-adoption behaviours, while considers the moderating roles of anthropomorphism and social presence. We empirically corroborated our model by asking from 403 current robot owners to illustrate theoretical paths to their post-adoption behaviours including cognitive absorption and intention to explore. This study contributes to the extant literature of human-robot interaction by proposing a theoretically grounded and empirically tested framework that contextualizes psychological ownership theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and trust in technology model. We also highlight the implications for practitioners to leverage trust and psychological ownership mechanisms together for encouraging users to actively engage with robots.