The development of sex robots has sparked numerous debates on the consequences of their use in terms of human-technology relations, interpersonal relationships and changes in social norms. Ethical concerns about the potential negative influence of sex robots on women's situation in society are reinforced by the market as most sex robots are still intended for male customers. The main aim of two experimental studies was to examine whether sex robots are perceived by heterosexual women as a sexual threat and whether this potential threat could be decreased by depicting the robots as products suitable for women. We also examined whether the perception of robots as a threat is related to conservative and liberal political views. The results show that, after the presentation of a sex robot as a product suitable for women, the sense of sexual threat was lower than when a sex robot was presented as designed for men but only among participants with more liberal views. More conservative women perceived sex robots as a threat regardless of whether they are designed for women or men. Thus, incorporating political views can be crucial in examining the social perception of new and controversial technologies, such as sex robots.

性机器人的发展引发了关于其使用在人类技术关系，人际关系和社会规范变化方面的后果的众多辩论。市场上对性机器人对社会上女性状况的潜在负面影响的道德担忧在市场上得到了加强，因为大多数性机器人仍是针对男性顾客的。两项实验研究的主要目的是检验异性恋女性是否将性爱机器人视为性威胁，以及通过将机器人描述为适合女性的产品是否可以减少这种潜在威胁。我们还研究了将机器人视为威胁的观点是否与保守和自由的政治观点有关。结果表明，在推出了一款适用于女性的性机器人产品之后，性威胁的感觉要比针对男性设计的性爱机器人低，但仅限于持较宽泛观点的参与者。越来越多的保守女性将性爱机器人视为威胁，无论它们是为女性还是男性设计的。因此，纳入政治观点对于研究社会对诸如色情机器人之类的新技术和争议技术的理解至关重要。