Trust and Human–Robot Interactions

Abstract

The concept of trust can take various forms, from interpersonal trust to institutional trust to trust in oneself or one’s government. As robotic technologies approach autonomy, and in increasing cases achieve it, scholars have turned their attention to the relationship between trust and human–robot interactions. This chapter explores that relationship using a multidisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, law, and neuroscience. The first section explicates the concept of human–robot interaction. The second articulates a normative account of interpersonal trust in service of the third section’s exploration of whether human–robot interactions could approach or achieve interpersonal trust. In answering this question in the affirmative, the fourth section flags some of the potential deleterious consequences of facilitating interpersonal trust in human–robot interactions. The fifth concludes with a call for future scholarship to address the philosophical, empirical, legal, and policy issues related to trust in human–robot interactions.