Trust in automation and automation designers: Implications for HCI and HMI

Trust is a complex construct that has an important role in an operator's interactions with other humans and with systems. Lee and See (2004) define trust as "the attitude that an agent will help achieve an individual's goals in a situation characterized by uncertainty and vulnerability" (p. 54). The authors further note that "trust guides reliance when complexity and unanticipated situations make a complete understanding of the automation impractical" (Lee & See, 2004, p. 50). This is accomplished in part because trust can be substituted for supervision when observation or monitoring is not feasible. Trust is also assumed to function as a social decision heuristic by facilitating choice under uncertainty (Lee & See, 2004).