Social robots become increasingly human-like in appearance and behaviour. However, a large body of research shows that these robots tend to elicit negative feelings of eeriness, danger, and threat. In the present study, we explored whether and how human-like appearance and mind-attribution contribute to these negative feelings and clarified possible underlying mechanisms. Participants were presented with pictures of mechanical, humanoid, and android robots, and physical anthropomorphism (Studies 1–3), attribution of mind perception of agency and experience (Studies 2 and 3), threat to human–machine distinctiveness, and damage to humans and their identity were assessed for all three robot types. Replicating earlier research, human–machine distinctiveness mediated the influence of anthropomorphic appearance on the perceived damage for humans and their identity, and this mediation was due to anthropomorphic appearance of the robot. Perceived agency and experience did not show similar mediating effects on human–machine distinctiveness, but a positive relation with perceived damage for humans and their identity. Possible explanations are discussed.

社交机器人的外观和行为变得越来越像人。但是，大量研究表明，这些机器人容易引起人为不良，危险和威胁的负面感觉。在本研究中，我们探索了类人的外表和心理归因是否以及如何促成这些负面感觉，并阐明了可能的潜在机制。向参与者展示了机械，人形机器人和机器人的图片，以及人体拟人化的照片（研究1-3），对代理和经验的思维归因（研究2和3），对人机独特性的威胁以及对人类的破坏并评估了所有三种机器人类型的身份。复制早期的研究，人机的独特性介导了拟人外观对人类感知的伤害及其身份的影响，而这种调解是由于机器人的拟人外观造成的。感知的代理和经验并未对人机的独特性表现出类似的中介作用，但与感知到的对人类及其身份的损害具有正相关关系。讨论了可能的解释。