Ryan Koch

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Ryan Koch is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), with a primary focus on the psychological and behavioral dynamics that shape how people trust and collaborate with autonomous systems. His most influential work, "The Relationship Between Trust and Use Choice in Human-Robot Interaction" (2019, 94 citations), challenges a long-standing assumption in the field—that trust automatically leads to reliance. Through carefully designed experiments, Koch demonstrated that the link between trust and use choice is far more nuanced, influenced by task complexity, risk perception, and individual differences. This contribution has reshaped how HRI researchers model human decision-making alongside robots, moving the field toward more realistic frameworks for designing trustworthy automation. Beyond this landmark paper, Koch’s broader research explores how calibration of trust—ensuring humans neither over-rely nor under-rely on robots—can improve safety and performance in critical domains like healthcare, manufacturing, and autonomous driving. His work is widely cited by engineers, psychologists, and roboticists, making him a key voice in understanding the human side of robotics. For students and researchers entering HRI, Koch’s insights are essential reading for anyone designing robots that people will actually want to work with.