Anthropomorphizing information to enhance trust in autonomous vehicles
Open accessAbstract
Trust is an essential condition for accepting and relying on autonomous vehicles. One of the well‐studied factors contributing to trust in automation systems is anthropomorphism. It is expected that anthropomorphism may also enhance trust in the field of autonomous vehicles. A study is presented that investigated the effect of anthropomorphic embodiment for information about the vehicle's maneuvers on people's trust in autonomous vehicles. In a driving simulator experiment deploying a between‐subjects design, participants (N = 39) were exposed to varying amounts of information displaying upcoming actions of an autonomous vehicle (symbolic information or symbolic + anthropomorphic information). Each group rated trust and liking for the test condition against a reference condition where no information about the upcoming actions was provided through questionnaires. Symbolic + anthropomorphic information resulted in significantly more trust than symbolic information. Through one‐sample tests, it was found that ratings for symbolic + anthropomorphic information were significantly different from no information, while symbolic information by itself was not. Ratings for perceived anthropomorphism were positively correlated with trust and liking. It is concluded that anthropomorphizing information may foster the perception of autonomous vehicles as social agents and enhance trust in those vehicles.
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People trust autonomous vehicles more when they display anthropomorphic cues (e.g., name, gender, voice), even when these superficial cues are unrelated to the underlying abilities of the vehicle.
“people trust vehicles more when they display anthropomorphic cues (e.g., name, gender, voice), even when these superficial cues are unrelated to the underlying abilities of the vehicle15–18.”
From The influence of mental state attributions on trust in large language models (2025) · cites this paper as [17]
Cites
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“The information that users receive about the operation of the vehicle should be expressed in a manner in accordance with the cognitive process for users to develop trust (J. D. Lee & See, 2004).”
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“…the environment and the nonhuman agents that inhabit it and to reduce uncertainty, as “anthropomorphism provides an intuitive and readily accessible method for reducing uncertainty in contexts in which alternative non-anthropomorphic models of agency do not exist” (Epley et al., 2007, p. 871).”
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Texting with Humanlike Conversational Agents: Designing for Anthropomorphism
Seeger, A.-M., University of Mannheim, G., Pfeiffer, J., Justus Liebig University Giessen, G., Heinzl, A., & University of Mannheim, G. (2021) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · doi:10.17705/1jais.00685 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
The influence of mental state attributions on trust in large language models
Colombatto, C., Birch, J., & Fleming, S. M. (2025) · Communications Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44271-025-00262-1 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
- Authors
- Niu, D., Terken, J., & Eggen, B.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University Shenyang P.R. China
- Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
- Venue
- Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-05-22
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 352-359
- ISSN
- 1090-8471 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-6564
- OpenAlex
- W2803575810
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 4.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries (publishedVersion)
- TU/e Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- TU/e Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (N40303007)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Safety
- Keywords
- anthropomorphism, trust in autonomous vehicles, human-machine interaction, symbolic information, vehicle maneuvering, perceived anthropomorphism, social actors
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