Could Pilots and Controllers Learn to Adequately Trust Their Partners?

Abstract: To find out whether it is possible to train pilots and controllers to adequately trust their partners, and thus modify their behavior and increase their performance, this study experimentally tested whether individuals’ disposition to trust is influenced by their social learning. Objective measurements related to the task to perform, collected over two successive phases, were used for two different groups of aviation staff. The results highlight a link between swift trust, supervision strategies, and time management and point to the social nature of the disposition to trust. This opens the way to a new experimental approach to the study of behaviors induced by interpersonal trust and to new pedagogical levers for optimizing the activity of ephemeral teams through training.