Foundations for an Empirically Determined Scale of Trust in Automated Systems

One component in the successful use of automated systems is the extent to which people trust the automation to perform effectively. In order to understand the relationship between trust in computerized systems and the use of those systems, we need to be able to effectively measure trust. Although questionnaires regarding trust have been used in prior studies, these questionnaires were theoretically rather than empirically generated and did not distinguish between three potentially different types of trust: human-human trust, human-machine trust, and trust in general. A three-phased experiment, comprising a word elicitation study, a questionnaire study, and a paired comparison study was performed, in order to better understand similarities and differences in the concepts of trust and distrust, and between the different types of trust. Results indicated that trust and distrust can be considered opposites, rather than comprising different concepts. Components of trust, in terms of words related to trust, were similar across the three types of trust. Results obtained from a cluster analysis were used to identify 12 potential factors of trust between people and automated systems. These 12 factors were then used to develop a proposed scale to measure trust in automation.