Defense Acquisition Research Journal Issue 95

Technology Trust

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Schaefer et al. (2016) and Waytz et al. (2014) identified anthropomorphism as a system factor that contributes to the development of human trust for robots. Reported cases in Pak et al. (2012) examine where the tendency to anthropomorphize technology leads to situations in which humans give a higher degree of trust to a technology than is warranted. The inverse of this situation also exists in the development of a lack of trust in a human teammate caused by the introduction of technology with more capability and reliability. In this experiment, anthropomorphism is assessed for its ability to influence technology trust. System Hierarchy In this work, we hypothesize that statistically significant differences will result in technology trust by introducing system information through an anthropomorphic hierarchy. Over a period of 10 years, the authors of this article provided instruction to third-year university engineering students on the topics of digital design and computer architecture. The predominant challenge reported by students in end-of-year course evaluations was difficulty synthesizing the highly complex components of a computer into a usable system. Based on student feedback, an anthropomorphic hierarchy was developed to structure the components of computer architecture to a more familiar format. This hierarchy provided students with the context needed to understand how the pieces of a computer function together to create a whole system. The work resulted in improved student ability to describe a computer from the elemental circuits up to the most advanced concepts of computer engineering such as compilers and operating systems.

FIGURE 1. ANTHROPOMORPHIC TECHNOLOGY HIERARCHY

HARDWARE Processor Circuits ALGORITHMS Data OS

BODY Brain Nervous System

THOUGHT Knowledge

Wisdom SENSES Sight, Smell, Hear, Taste, Touch

LINKS Inputs Outputs

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Defense ARJ, January 2021, Vol. 28 No. 1 : 2-39