Trusting machine teammates

Abstract Team communication content can provide insights into teammates’ coordination processes and perceptions of one another. Using a simulated aircraft reconnaissance team task testbed, we investigate how personifying and objectifying communication content relate to people’s trust in and anthropomorphism of machine teammates and to overall team performance. A total of 44 participants were paired and assigned to one of two unique team roles alongside a synthetic pilot agent. Instances of verbal personifications and objectifications that occurred during the task were captured and compared to team performance, as well as questionnaire responses related to participants’ trust in, and anthropomorphizing of, the synthetic pilot. Verbal personifications were not correlated with trust and anthropomorphism but converged for the two human roles over time, along with a convergence in trust towards the synthetic agent. Verbal objectifications, on the other hand, were negatively correlated with perceived trustworthiness and anthropomorphism of a teammate. Neither verbal personifications nor objectifications were found to be related to team performance. Our findings suggest that people verbally personify machines to ease communication, and that the same processes that underlie tendencies to verbally personify and objectify machines are related to those that influence trust and anthropomorphism.