Are Teammate Trust and Confidence Dissociable in Risk Intensive Human Machine Teaming?

Abstract

Although automation has become the focus of an increasingly expansive body of research literature in human machine team development, few studies have examined the distinction between confidence in a teammate’s capabilities and trust in their intentions. Fewer still have examined the relationship between these two important components of reliance under naturalistic conditions of high risk. We launch into this void with an initial examination of historical case studies which suggest that risk can act as a catalyst that surprisingly and profoundly transforms the relationship between confidence and trust from a typically convergent and positive influence on teammate reliance to a divergent one that can substantially diminish it. We further examine these historical events as rare yet profound occurrences which take place outside the university/hospital laboratory environment in which the vast majority of scientific conclusions are drawn from the behavior of young college students with immature frontal lobes performing artificial tasks under emotionally sterile, risk-averse conditions. We close with the ambitious goal of inspiring a shift within the Human Machine Interaction and Cognitive Engineering fields toward naturalistic, risk intensive research with increased ecological validity for the military and first responder communities.