First, from the very beginning of his robot stories - Robbie is the first one he wrote - Asimov brings up the idea that human society will fear robots - in particular those that in any way resemble humans.
I wonder if there is any sort of sociological literature on societal views of robots but I imagine that the question of human response to humaniform robots must still be somewhat up in the air. Although I think Asimov has a lot going for him. I've already mentioned the "other" element which will only grow the more humaniform robots become and the more intelligent they become - but I should also not neglect to mention the economic threat that robots represent to all manner of workers.
Both elements will certainly stir the pot - if not toward a ban as Asimov proposes might occur, then definitely toward a wariness for humaniform robots - or at least towards some major marketing efforts by a future USR.
The idea I neglected to mention in the first post is the extreme similarity between Robbie and the movie Fido. The movie takes place in a future zombie infested world where the company Zomcon has created a device that allows humans to control zombies - employing them in positions of manual labor. The story follows Timmy and his adventures with their zombie (named Fido) bought by the mother in order to keep up with the Joneses against the wishes of the father who never got over killing his zombie dad. There's more to it (and less) but the relationship between the child and the zombie and the relationship each parent has to the zombie are very similar to relationships in Robbie - and I imagine the filmmakers came under that influence.
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