In view of demographic change, the shift in traditional family care structures and the ongoing shortage of skilled labour, assistive robotics is playing an increasingly important role in the sensitive field of elderly care. It is known from social psychological research that, as in interpersonal interaction, social categories play a role in human-robot interaction. For example, there are considerations to utilise knowledge about the effect of stereotypical attributions such as role expectations based on age and gender in order to achieve greater acceptance, more effective use and a higher level of well-being among users of these technologies.

However, such strategies operate in an ethical field of tension: there is a risk of disregarding the autonomy and needs of those being cared for and reproducing prejudices. This can ultimately lead to (intersectional) discrimination, influencing or even manipulation of users. The intended increase in acceptance can thus become an obstacle to diversity-sensitive, ethically acceptable care.

How the relevant stakeholders in technology development, industry and the care sector view these problems is, however, hardly known. However, they have a significant influence on the future development and application of assistive robots in geriatric care, and their perceptions, interpretations and assessments are therefore of considerable importance.

Against this background, the project, which is being carried out in collaboration with Prof Dr Frauke Koppelin from the Jade University of Applied Sciences, is investigating how these stakeholder groups perceive and evaluate the implementation of gender and age stereotypes in care robotics and their moral problems. The aim is to explore the extent to which the wishes and needs of future users are taken into account during development and implementation. The focus here is on the question of the extent to which stereotypical ideas play a role in this context and are perceived, reflected upon and morally evaluated.