The Relevance of Seemingly Irrelevant Group Interactions for Automation Trust: An Analysis of Naturalistic Team Conversations on Contingent Behaviors

Small changes in a system can cause dramatic shifts in individual trust to automation, be it over-trust or under-trust, and such behavior may spread within a team of human agents and automation. Even within the same environment and system variables, trust evolution may differ from team to team due to small changes—which would make traditional statistical analysis inappropriate. Such contingencies are difficult to identify, but may determine a team’s success or failure. We explored how one possible contingent factor, day-to-day group interaction, may influence an individual’s trust development in an automated system represented by a virtual assistant. A preliminary exploration between group interaction and trust differences between participants showed statistical significance ( p = .042), but weak correlation ( R 2 = .03). Trajectory variation is highly attributed to individual differences or unaccounted contingent behaviors. Further analyses of contingent factors and trust development will explore individual and group dynamics over time.