Success by Undesirable Means: Differences in Trust Following Successful (Yet Deviant) Flight Path Adherence

Abstract

The success or failure of a system can impact one's trust in that system. User trust can also be affected by system behavior (e.g., type of movement, how social it is, human-likeness). However, there remains a gap in understanding the relationship between these two influences. Additionally, few studies have examined trust following differences in the behavior of systems with consistently successful results across behaviors. Therefore, the degree to which the behavior of a system in the pursuit of a successful outcome can influence user trust is unknown. In one experiment, participants were tasked with plotting a path for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to fly. The UAV deviated from the path by different amounts, between subjects. Despite no differences in measures of performance (the success of the UAV reaching the end destination, time to complete the task, end score, or how far participants had to draw the routes), nor other cognitive constructs (i.e., workload), differences in trust were reported. These results indicate that it is not simply if a system accomplishes a task, but also the way it does that influences trust.