With the increasing deployment of robots in public spaces, encounters between robots and incidentally copresent persons (InCoPs) are becoming more frequent. However, InCoPs remain largely underexplored in the literature, particularly from a cross-cultural perspective. Therefore, the present study investigates cultural differences in InCoPs' existence acceptance (EA) of autonomous cleaning robots in public spaces among Japanese and German participants. Online survey results revealed that Germans showed significantly higher EA. Social Norms and Trust were the strongest positive EA predictors across cultures. More specifically, for Germans, EA was directly influenced by Usefulness, Interest and Anger, showing a functional-affective pattern where functional perceptions boost EA and anger suppresses it. For Japanese participants, Trust, Surprise and Fear were the direct associational factors, forming a trust-emotion pattern. These findings reveal cultural influences on cognitive and emotional drivers of public robot acceptance, emphasizing the need for culturally adaptive robot design.

翻译：随着机器人在公共空间中的部署日益增加，机器人与偶然共处者（InCoPs）之间的相遇变得越来越频繁。然而，文献中对InCoPs的研究仍显不足，尤其是从跨文化视角来看。因此，本研究调查了日本和德国参与者对公共空间中自主清洁机器人的存在接受度（EA）的文化差异。在线调查结果显示，德国人的EA显著更高。社会规范和信任是所有文化中EA的最强正向预测因素。更具体地说，对于德国人，EA直接受有用性、兴趣和愤怒的影响，呈现出一种功能-情感模式，其中功能感知提升EA，而愤怒则抑制它。对于日本参与者，信任、惊喜和恐惧是直接关联因素，形成了信任-情感模式。这些发现揭示了文化对公共机器人接受度的认知和情感驱动因素的影响，强调了文化适应性机器人设计的必要性。