How Much Trust is Enough? Towards Calibrating Trust in Technology

2026-04-07

AI Summary

This study addresses the trust imbalance that arises when users interact with increasingly prevalent yet opaque autonomous systems, often due to an inadequate understanding of their capabilities and limitations. Building upon the Human-Computer Trust Scale (HCTS), this work proposes the first practice-oriented, context-sensitive explanatory framework that enables reflective interpretation of trust dispositions. Through empirical validation, the research not only confirms the efficacy of HCTS as an initial trust assessment instrument but also introduces context-aware calibration guidelines for aligning user trust with system performance. The resulting framework provides both theoretical grounding and practical support for dynamically regulating trust in human–computer interaction.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

The role of trust within Human-Computer Interaction is being redefined. With the increasing omnipresence, autonomy, and opacity of technology, users often struggle to understand the capabilities and limitations of systems. In this article, we present the results of an empirical study designed to provide a practical, evidence-based interpretation of trust propensity assessment using the Human-Computer Trust Scale (HCTS). We outline the process used to develop a guideline for interpreting the instrument's results and explain the rationale for our decisions, advocating for calibrating trust in technology within HCI. Our findings demonstrate that the HCTS is a promising tool for conducting an initial evaluation of propensity to trust, but that such an assessment requires reflection and interpretation that should be considered within the context of the interaction.

Problem

• trust calibration
• Human-Computer Interaction
• trust propensity
• technology trust
• system transparency

Innovation

• trust calibration
• Human-Computer Trust Scale (HCTS)
• human-computer interaction
• trust propensity
• empirical study