Do We Blame it on the Machine? Task Outcome and Agency Attribution in Human-Technology Collaboration

• In Event: Analyses of Gaming, Mobile Devices, and Technology

Abstract

When humans routinely work and communicate with technology to complete tasks and solve problems, they constantly assess, consciously or non-consciously, the roles that they themselves and the technology play in the interaction. Given the well- known tendencies for fundamental attribution error in teamwork and the application of social rules to technology (Nass, Steuer, & Tauber, 1994), the existing literature in communication and social psychology would suggest a self-serving bias among human users when they collaborate with technologies on tasks: When things go well, the user will take credit for self; but when things go badly, they will blame the technology while distancing themselves from the failure. In this study, we empirically examine whether the fundamental attribution error is applicable in a human-technology collaborations, and whether that would influence users’ attribution of agency, as well as other psychological outcomes such as user experience and perception, in different task outcome scenarios.

Authors

• Haiyan Jia, Pennsylvania State University

• Mu Wu, The Pennsylvania State University

• S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State U and Sungkyunkwan Univ