Influence of Culture, Transparency, Trust, and Degree of Automation on Automation Use

The reported study compares groups of 120 participants each, from the United States (U.S.), Taiwan (TW), and Turkey (TK), interacting with versions of an automated path planner that vary in transparency and degree of automation. The nationalities were selected in accordance with the theory of cultural syndromes as representatives of Dignity (U.S.), Face (TW), and Honor (TK) cultures, and were predicted to differ in readiness to trust automation, degree of transparency required to use automation, and willingness to use systems with high degrees of automation. Three experimental conditions were tested. In the first, highlight , path conflicts were highlighted leaving rerouting to the participant. In the second, replanner made requests for permission to reroute when a path conflict was detected. The third combined condition increased transparency of the replanner by combining highlighting with rerouting to make the conflict on which decision was based visible to the user. A novel framework relating transparency, stages of automation, and trust in automation is proposed in which transparency plays a primary role in decisions to use automation but is supplemented by trust where there is insufficient information otherwise. Hypothesized cultural effects and framework predictions were confirmed.