The effects of multiculturalism and mechanistic disdain for robots in human-to-robot communication scenarios Hyun-Hee Heo & Min-Sun Kim University of Hawaii at Mímoa This study investigates the effects of cultural orientation and the degree of disdain for robots on the preferred conversational styles in human-to-robot interactions. 203 participants self-reported on questionnaires through a computer-based online survey. The two requesting situations were intended to simulate the participants' interactions-with humanoid social robots through an Internet video-phone medium of communication. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the mediating role of mechanistic disdain between multicultural orientation and conversational constraints. Thefindingsreveal that between the two dimensions of multicultural orientation, only open-mindedness inversely influences mechanistic disdain. Mechanistic disdain, in turn, negatively affects three face-related conversational constraints, thereby leading to a lesser concern for robots' feelings, for minimizing impositions on robots, and for avoiding robots' negative evaluations. The implications of ourfindingson humans' relations with virtual robot entities and on the future development of humanoid robots are discussed. Keywords: Human-robot interaction; multiculturalism; dehumanization (disdain); conversational constraint As robotic technology moves from our imagination into real life, people will have more opportunity to encounter humanoid social robots in their daily lives. "Humanoid social robots" refers to robots that resemble and have human-like forms, capabilities, behaviors, or other characteristics (Gong 2008). People interact with humanoid social robots in various situations, such as nursing homes, schools, and workplaces (Breazeal 2002; Burke, Murphy, Coovert & Riddle 2004; Hinds, Roberts & Jones 2004; Kanda, Hirano, Eaton & Ishiguro 2004; Pineau, Montemerlo, Pollack, Roy & Thrun 2003). As intelligent humanoid social robots begin to co-exist with people at home or work, the issue concerning people's preferred communication styles toward social robots is becoming a significant area of research. With regard to factors Interaction Studies 14:1 (2013), 81-106, DOI io,iO75/is.i4.i,o6heo ISSN 1572-0373/E-issN 1572-0381 © John Benjamins Publishing Company