Committing to Interdependence: Implications from Game Theory for Human-Robot Trust

TL;DR

This paper bridges human-robot interaction and game theory by demonstrating that interdependence metrics better predict trust behaviors, especially overtrust, in both human-human and human-robot scenarios, offering new insights into trust calibration.

Contribution

It introduces interdependence-derived variables for trust prediction, validated through analysis of game theory data and human subject experiments, advancing understanding of trust in human-robot interactions.

Findings

Interdependence metrics outperform rational reasoning in predicting overtrust.

Strong correlation between interdependence variables and trust behaviors.

Insights into trust dynamics when robots replace humans in interactions.

Abstract

Human-robot interaction and game theory have developed distinct theories of trust for over three decades in relative isolation from one another. Human-robot interaction has focused on the underlying dimensions, layers, correlates, and antecedents of trust models, while game theory has concentrated on the psychology and strategies behind singular trust decisions. Both fields have grappled to understand over-trust and trust calibration, as well as how to measure trust expectations, risk, and vulnerability. This paper presents initial steps in closing the gap between these fields. Using insights and experimental findings from interdependence theory and social psychology, this work starts by analyzing a large game theory competition data set to demonstrate that the strongest predictors for a wide variety of human-human trust interactions are the interdependence-derived variables for commitment and trust that we have developed. It then presents a second study with human subject results for more realistic trust scenarios, involving both human-human and human-machine trust. In both the competition data and our experimental data, we demonstrate that the interdependence metrics better capture social `overtrust' than either rational or normative psychological reasoning, as proposed by game theory. This work further explores how interdependence theory--with its focus on commitment, coercion, and cooperation--addresses many of the proposed underlying constructs and antecedents within human-robot trust, shedding new light on key similarities and differences that arise when robots replace humans in trust interactions.