Warmth, Competence, and the Determinants of Trust in Artificial Intelligence: A Cross-Sectional Survey from China

Trust is critical in humans’ interactions with artificial intelligence (AI). In this large-scale survey study (N = 2187), we examined the effects of 19 factors on people’s trust in AI. Across the three dimensions of trust (i.e., the trustor, the trustee, and their interacting context), factors related to the trustee (i.e., AI) were found to affect trust in AI the most. Among factors in the trustee category, warmth and competence, two factors also critical to human trust relationships, emerged as the most pivotal ones, and they partially mediated the effects of other factors on trust in AI. We further show that trust in AI influenced participants’ intentions to collaborate and use AI both directly and as the mediator between warmth, competence, and other factors and intentions. These findings indicate that trust in AI shares much common ground with trust in humans, and provide practical suggestions on how to promote people’s trust in AI effectively.