Relation between Trust Attitudes Toward Automation, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and Big Five Personality Traits

Automation has been widely used in interactions with smartphones, computers, and other machinery in recent decades. Studies have shown that inappropriate reliance on automation can lead to unexpected and even catastrophic results. Trust is conceived as an intervening variable between user intention and actions involving reliance on automation. It is generally believed that trust is dynamic and an individual’s culture or personality may influence automation use through changes in trust. To better understand how cultural and individual differences may affect a person’s trust and resulting behaviors, the present study examined the effects of cultural characteristics and personality traits on reported trust in automation in U.S., Taiwanese and Turkish populations. The results showed individual differences significantly affected human trust in automation across the three cultures.