Abstract:

Effective implementation of mixed initiative teams, where humans work alongside machines, requires increased understanding of the decision-making process and the role of social influence exerted by non-human peers. Conformity—the act of adjusting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to those of another—is considered to be the strongest of these social pressures. Previous studies have attempted to understand conformity with humans interacting with a group of robots, but these have failed to identify satisfactory explanations for inconsistent findings. Grounded in trait-activation theory, we propose that personality is a critical factor that needs to be considered. In this effort, we recreated the famous social psychology experiment by Solomon Asch and conducted a single condition study to explore the effects of social influence on decision making. Our study results showed conformity with robot peers did occur. Moreover, scores on the Openness personality trait were a significant predictor of conformity.

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/79411

Abstract:

Intelligent systems are increasingly relied on as partners used to make decisions in business contexts. With advances in artificial intelligence technology and system interfaces, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish these system partners from their human counterparts. Understanding the role of perceived humanness and its impact on trust in these situations is important as trust is widely recognized as critical to system adoption and effective collaboration. We conducted an exploratory study involving individuals collaborating with an intelligent system partner to make several critical decisions. Measured trust levels and survey responses were analyzed. Results suggest that greater trust is experienced when the partner is perceived to be human. Additionally, the attribution of partners possessing expert knowledge drove perceptions of humanness. Partners viewed to adhere to strict syntactical requirements, displaying quick response times, having unnatural conversational tone, and unrealistic availability contributed to perceptions of partners being machine-like.

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/70627

Abstract:

Trust in human-machine teams, where humans partner with intelligent systems, is critical to effective collaboration and work success. Research in prior studies of trust in human-robot partnerships, has largely focused on three groups of trust antecedents: factors relating to the environment, the machine, and human individual differences. There is a dearth of research in this later area, despite wide recognition that individual differences play an important role in human behaviour and cognition. This paper draws on the psychological theory of trait activation and examines the role of human personality in trust in the relationships between humans and intelligent humanoid robots partnering to make critical decisions. We conducted an empirical study that looked to explore the role of the Big-Five personality traits on trust. Results suggest that the openness personality trait is a significant predictor of trust in a humanoid-robot partner, above and beyond the individual difference propensity trust. Individuals scoring high on the openness personality trait may have a greater trust in a humanoid robot partner than those with low scores in the openness personality dimension. Future studies should look to better understand the trait activating factors related to Openness in human machine trusting relationships.

https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2021/107224/107224.pdf