Modeling Trust and Reliance with Wait Time in a Human-Robot Interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores how wait time impacts trust and reliance in human-robot interactions, demonstrating that longer wait times decrease trust and reliance, with effects confirmed in both online and face-to-face experiments.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that wait time significantly influences trust and reliance in human-robot interactions, highlighting its role as a controllable factor.

Findings

Wait time negatively affects trust in robots.

Wait time negatively affects reliance on robots.

Effects are consistent in online and face-to-face settings.

Abstract

This study investigated how wait time influences trust in and reliance on a robot. Experiment 1 was conducted as an online experiment manipulating the wait time for the task partner's action from 1 to 20 seconds and the anthropomorphism of the partner. As a result, the anthropomorphism influenced trust in the partner and did not influence reliance on the partner. However, the wait time negatively influenced trust in and reliance on the partner. Moreover, a mediation effect of trust from the wait time on reliance on the partner was confirmed. Experiment 2 was conducted to confirm the effects of wait time on trust and reliance in a human-robot face-to-face situation. As a result, the same effects of wait time found in Experiment 1 were confirmed. This study revealed that wait time is a strong and controllable factor that influences trust in and reliance on a robot.