  Social isolation is one of the negative consequences of a pandemic like
COVID-19. Social isolation and loneliness are not only experienced by older
adults, but also by younger people who live alone and cannot communicate with
others or get involved in social situations as they used to. In such
situations, social companion robots might have the potential to reduce social
isolation and increase well-being. However, society's perception of social
robots has not always been positive. In this paper, we conducted two online
experiments with 102 and 132 participants during the self isolation periods of
COVID-19 (May-June 2020 and January 2021), to study how COVID-19 has affected
people's perception of the benefits of a social robot. Our results showed that
a change caused by COVID-19, as well as having an older relative who lived
alone or at a care center during the pandemic significantly and positively
affected people's perception of social robots, as companions, and that the
feeling of loneliness can drive the purchase of a social robot. The second
study replicated the results of the first study. We also discuss the effects of
Big 5 personality traits on the likelihood to purchase a social robot, as well
as on participants' general attitude towards COVID-19 and adapting to the
pandemic.
