Why automate this? Towards a Better Understanding of the Desire for Robot Automation of Different Social Groups

Ruchira Ray^∗, Leona Pang^∗, Sanjana Srivastava^†, Li Fei-Fei^†, Samantha Shorey^‡, Roberto Martín-Martín^∗

^∗UT Austin, {ruchiraray, leonapang, robertomm}@utexas.edu
^†Stanford, {sanjana2, feifeili}@stanford.edu
^‡University of Pittsburgh, samshorey@pitt.edu

Code arXiv

Overview

What tasks do we want robots to handle? Are those preferences based on saved time or feelings we associate with the tasks? This study uncovers how feelings shape robot automation preferences, revealing insights across gender and income groups. Using data from BEHAVIOR-1K and the American Time-Use Survey, we show that feelings(Happiness, Stress, Meaningfulness), not time spent, drive automation desires. We open-sourced the data + built an interactive tool

Interactive Tool

BibTeX

@article{ray2025automate,
  title={Why Automate This? Exploring the Connection between Time Use, Well-being and Robot Automation Across Social Groups},
  author={Ray, Ruchira and Pang, Leona and Srivastava, Sanjana and Fei-Fei, Li and Shorey, Samantha and Mart{\'\i}n-Mart{\'\i}n, Roberto},
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.06348},
  year={2025}
}