Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information

S. Shyam Sundar; Jinyoung Kim

doi:10.1145/3290605.3300768

Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information

S. Shyam Sundar
, Jinyoung Kim

Pennsylvania State University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

373 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this day and age of identity theft, are we likely to trust machines more than humans for handling our personal information? We answer this question by invoking the concept of “machine heuristic,” which is a rule of thumb that machines are more secure and trustworthy than humans. In an experiment (N = 160) that involved making airline reservations, users were more likely to reveal their credit card information to a machine agent than a human agent. We demonstrate that cues on the interface trigger the machine heuristic by showing that those with higher cognitive accessibility of the heuristic (i.e., stronger prior belief in the rule of thumb) were more likely than those with lower accessibility to disclose to a machine, but they did not differ in their disclosure to a human. These findings have implications for design of interface cues conveying machine vs. human sources of our online interactions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450359702
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768
State	Published - 2 May 2019
Externally published	Yes
Event	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019 - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 4 May 2019 → 9 May 2019

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Glasgow
Period	4/05/19 → 9/05/19

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Keywords

Automation bias
Cognitive heuristics
Machine heuristic
MAIN model
Secure
Trustworthy computing
Virtual agent

Access to Document

10.1145/3290605.3300768

Cite this

@inproceedings{a5ac4e2c2449446698ad1faaaf9c3dd6,

title = "Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information",

abstract = "In this day and age of identity theft, are we likely to trust machines more than humans for handling our personal information? We answer this question by invoking the concept of {\textquotedblleft}machine heuristic,{\textquotedblright} which is a rule of thumb that machines are more secure and trustworthy than humans. In an experiment (N = 160) that involved making airline reservations, users were more likely to reveal their credit card information to a machine agent than a human agent. We demonstrate that cues on the interface trigger the machine heuristic by showing that those with higher cognitive accessibility of the heuristic (i.e., stronger prior belief in the rule of thumb) were more likely than those with lower accessibility to disclose to a machine, but they did not differ in their disclosure to a human. These findings have implications for design of interface cues conveying machine vs. human sources of our online interactions.",

keywords = "Automation bias, Cognitive heuristics, Machine heuristic, MAIN model, Secure, Trustworthy computing, Virtual agent",

author = "\{Shyam Sundar\}, S. and Jinyoung Kim",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.; 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019 ; Conference date: 04-05-2019 Through 09-05-2019",

year = "2019",

month = may,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1145/3290605.3300768",

language = "English",

series = "Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

booktitle = "CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

}

Shyam Sundar, S & Kim, J 2019, Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information. in CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 4/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768

Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information. / Shyam Sundar, S.; Kim, Jinyoung.
CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2019. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Machine heuristic

T2 - 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019

AU - Shyam Sundar, S.

AU - Kim, Jinyoung

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N2 - In this day and age of identity theft, are we likely to trust machines more than humans for handling our personal information? We answer this question by invoking the concept of “machine heuristic,” which is a rule of thumb that machines are more secure and trustworthy than humans. In an experiment (N = 160) that involved making airline reservations, users were more likely to reveal their credit card information to a machine agent than a human agent. We demonstrate that cues on the interface trigger the machine heuristic by showing that those with higher cognitive accessibility of the heuristic (i.e., stronger prior belief in the rule of thumb) were more likely than those with lower accessibility to disclose to a machine, but they did not differ in their disclosure to a human. These findings have implications for design of interface cues conveying machine vs. human sources of our online interactions.

AB - In this day and age of identity theft, are we likely to trust machines more than humans for handling our personal information? We answer this question by invoking the concept of “machine heuristic,” which is a rule of thumb that machines are more secure and trustworthy than humans. In an experiment (N = 160) that involved making airline reservations, users were more likely to reveal their credit card information to a machine agent than a human agent. We demonstrate that cues on the interface trigger the machine heuristic by showing that those with higher cognitive accessibility of the heuristic (i.e., stronger prior belief in the rule of thumb) were more likely than those with lower accessibility to disclose to a machine, but they did not differ in their disclosure to a human. These findings have implications for design of interface cues conveying machine vs. human sources of our online interactions.

KW - Automation bias

KW - Cognitive heuristics

KW - Machine heuristic

KW - MAIN model

KW - Secure

KW - Trustworthy computing

KW - Virtual agent

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DO - 10.1145/3290605.3300768

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85067611223

T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

BT - CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 4 May 2019 through 9 May 2019

ER -

Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this