The Role of Affective Valence and Task Uncertainty in Human-Automation Interaction

Abstract

Mood can greatly influence how humans experience and react to the world around them. Therefore, it seems likely that mood can also influence interaction with automated decision systems and that this influence could be exacerbated by characteristics of a given task. To test these ideas, participants completed a series of complex visual search tasks with different levels of uncertainty. Half of the participants received negative mood manipulations and half received positive mood manipulations. Also, half of the participants received the assistance of an automated decision aid and half did not. Participants were assessed for system trust, confidence, sensitivity, and criterion setting. Results revealed that participants in a positive mood were more susceptible to the recommendations of the decision aid and were more confident than those in a negative mood. Automation presence tended to reduce the impact of task uncertainty on the dependent variables. These findings have implications for system design and implementation decisions.