Trusting robots: a relational trust definition based on human intentionality

As robots are increasingly found in various aspects of human life, understanding how humans relate to and interact with robots is becoming more relevant. One important factor affecting the quality of human-robot interactions is trust, and in recent years there has been an increase in scientific interest in the nature of trust between humans and robots. However, it can be observed that a clear distinction between trust and its related constructs is not always made when examining trust in robots. To overcome these limitations, we propose a definition of trust in robots that clearly separates trust from its related constructs. To this end, we extend an established trust model for interpersonal trust, which we adapt to describe trust in HRI. The new definition describes trust as a particular way in which human trustor relates to a robot. By characterizing trust as an asymmetric relation with certain properties, the proposed definition adopts a perspective that focuses on the human trustor in describing trust. Furthermore, we argue that the proposed definition of trust is suitable for describing trust in all types of robots and for any form of human-robot interaction.