Diversity and Culture in Social Robotics: A Scoping Review

This review explores how cultural relativism affects the adoption and perception of robots, drawing conclusions that can be used to mitigate biases and design robots that incorporate cultural diversity. Indeed, several aspects (like religion, pragmatics, appearance, application areas) need to be considered and implemented to ensure a more pleasant interaction with humans. We show that culture is in itself a broad concept that covers various aspects: verbal behavior, nonverbal behavior, design, and application areas. It could intervene as a response and interpretation strategy when there is a clear reference to a social background in the task to shorten the adaptation. It is a cost-saving principle, a heuristic.