A Little Anthropomorphism Goes a Long Way

Abstract

Objective We investigated the effects of exogenous oxytocin on trust, compliance, and team decision making with agents varying in anthropomorphism (computer, avatar, human) and reliability (100%, 50%). Background Recent work has explored psychological similarities in how we trust human-like automation compared to how we trust other humans. Exogenous administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide associated with trust among humans, offers a unique opportunity to probe the anthropomorphism continuum of automation to infer when agents are trusted like another human or merely a machine. Method Eighty-four healthy male participants collaborated with automated agents varying in anthropomorphism that provided recommendations in a pattern recognition task. Results Under placebo, participants exhibited less trust and compliance with automated aids as the anthropomorphism of those aids increased. Under oxytocin, participants interacted with aids on the extremes of the anthropomorphism continuum similarly to placebos, but increased their trust, compliance, and performance with the avatar, an agent on the midpoint of the anthropomorphism continuum. Conclusion This study provided the first evidence that administration of exogenous oxytocin affected trust, compliance, and team decision making with automated agents. These effects provide support for the premise that oxytocin increases affinity for social stimuli in automated aids. Application Designing automation to mimic basic human characteristics is sufficient to elicit behavioral trust outcomes that are driven by neurological processes typically observed in human-human interactions. Designers of automated systems should consider the task, the individual, and the level of anthropomorphism to achieve the desired outcome.

Can Robots Earn Our Trust the Same Way Humans Do? A Systematic Exploration of Competence, Warmth, and Anthropomorphism as Determinants of Trust Development in HRI

“…Thus, regarding the transferability of interpersonal trust dynamics to HRI, anthropomorphism of robots might be a relevant determinant. Accordingly, study results support a positive relationship between anthropomorphic design cues, e.g., humanlike appearance or voice of robots (Hancock et al, 2011;van Pinxteren et al, 2019) as well as agents, in general, and trust in such (e.g., Pak et al, 2012;de Visser et al, 2016de Visser et al, , 2017. Furthermore, Kulms and Kopp (2019) explored the role of anthropomorphism and advice quality, a sort of robot competence, in trust within a cooperative human-agent setting.…”

Our Robots, Our Team: Robot Anthropomorphism Moderates Group Effects in Human–Robot Teams

“…Further routes for future examination include biological mechanisms for treating ingroup robots nearly as well as ingroup humans. For example, prior work indicates that oxytocin accounts for greater trust and compliance with automated agents ( De Visser et al, 2017 ). Further, oxytocin is shown to motivate people for greater favoritism ( De Dreu et al, 2011 ) and protection ( De Dreu et al, 2012 ) of the ingroup.…”

Oxytocin Facilitates Social Learning by Promoting Conformity to Trusted Individuals

“…Thus, one study showed that OXT enhanced levels of trust following social exclusion in the Cyberball game, but only in individuals who reported a negative emotional response to being excluded (Cardoso et al, 2013), and another showed that interpersonal trust was only increased in Democrats with low initial personal trust (Merolla et al, 2013). Finally, one study has reported that intranasal OXT enhanced trust/compliance with reliable, but not unreliable, human-like automatons (De Visser et al, 2017).…”