Daniel Ayers

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Daniel Ayers is a researcher in human-robot interaction, with a focus on the cognitive and social dynamics of trust between humans and autonomous systems. His primary research area centers on trust theory in human-robot relationships, where he has made a foundational contribution through the development of Deconstructed Trustee Theory. Introduced in his 2021 paper, this theory reframes how trustworthiness is perceived by separating the robot’s physical embodiment—its body—from its perceived identity, such as its name, personality, or inferred agency. Based on an empirical study with 210 participants, Ayers demonstrated that humans evaluate these components differently, offering a more nuanced model for designing trustworthy robots. While his work is still emerging, with 14 citations to his landmark paper, it has already sparked interest in robotics ethics and human-robot collaboration. Ayers’s research is particularly valuable for students and engineers seeking to build robots that are not only functionally reliable but also socially accepted, bridging a critical gap between technical design and human psychology.