System-Wide Trust, Graded System Distrust, or simple Anchoring/Priming Effects?

Abstract

Trust in automation is an important construct to consider when attempting to predict proper use of automated systems. Automation is being used in increasingly diverse and more complex ways. Previous findings report that trust can be generalized across systems, leading to contagion effects. However, it is unclear in the current literature how users form perceptions of the boundaries between systems. To address this problem, we conducted two experiments in which we considered how perceived similarity, perceived functional relatedness, attributed blame, and attributed responsibility influenced the magnitude of contagion effects for trust. Participants were presented with hypothetical scenarios in which an airplane environment is depicted. We found that participants tended not to have a contagion effect for clearly unrelated components (a farmer and microwave) while showing a contagion effect for those that are related, suggesting that previous findings including contagion effects may not be explained by an anchoring effect. The degree of difference in trust between the success and failure conditions was also predicted by similarity and relatedness of the components. Moving forward, more research should focus on understanding how users form mental models of system boundaries.