Do Users’ Values Influence Trust in Automation?

As automation continues to play an increasing role in our daily life, it is essential to understand human-automation trust and the factors that influence that trust. Human values related research has become increasingly crucial to the HCI community over the past decade, but there has not been a uniform standard measure to frame and define human values, and there is a lack of clarity regarding the value-centered approach. Motivated by Schwartz’s theory of fundamental human values, in this study, we investigate the relationship and the influence of human values on the formation of human trust towards automation. Specifically, how does HAI design prioritize values, which values should be emphasized during the design process, and which values will be diminished? This study, therefore, aims to provide an empirical examination of how human values can be incorporated into the design and development of automation. As a result of this study, we reveal that humans’ complacency towards trust and values are more closely aligned. In addition, values such as “openness to change” seem to contribute the most to maintaining human-automation trust. We believe our study provides the first empirical evidence for the importance of considering human values when studying human-automaton trust and provides guidance for future human-centered design.