Teamwork Traits Associated with Positive Perceptions of the Dependability and Utility of Autonomous Advisors

Abstract

Near future human-autonomy teams (HATs) will feature artificial agents with increasingly advanced social capabilities. The social atmosphere of a team is known to be important for successful teaming; however, it is not clear that factors influencing human-to-human exchanges will transfer directly to human-autonomy exchanges. Here, using data from the DARPA ASIST program, we employed four measures tapping individuals’ personality, social preferences, and social intelligence to explore differences in perceptions of human as compared to autonomous teammates’ dependability as well as perceived impacts regarding team coordination and performance. We found that psychological collectivism, sociable dominance, and extraversion were associated with positive perceptions of autonomous teammates serving as advisors, but not human teammates in the same role, and a reversed relationship for conscientiousness and openness. Awareness and examination of these factors in increasingly social HATs will be important for developing successful agents and selecting effective team members.