Dear robot, I have diarrhea: Why we trust machines with embarrassing problems

Many TV shows have a scene where a customer attempts to buy a potentially embarrassing product – a pornographic magazine perhaps or a diarrhea treatment – only to have the assistant loudly check the price or ask questions for other people to hear. Situations like this do happen in pharmacies and other shops. And they tend to make people squirm. But, what if they could interact with a robot instead of a human employee? In our recent research, my colleagues and I found the use of robots, rather than people, as assistants, may reduce people’s feelings of embarrassment. In one…

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