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Sophisticated technology is increasingly replacing human minds to
perform complicated tasks in domains ranging from medicine to education to
transportation. We investigated an important theoretical determinant of
people's willingness to trust such technology to perform competently-the
extent to which a nonhuman agent is anthropomorphized with a humanlike
mind-in a domain of practical importance, autonomous driving. Participants
using a driving simulator drove either a normal car, an autonomous vehicle
able to control steering and speed, or a comparable autonomous vehicle
augmented with additional anthropomorphic features-name, gender, and voice.
Behavioral, physiological, and self-report measures revealed that
participants trusted that the vehicle would perform more competently as it
acquired more anthropomorphic features. Technology appears better able to
perform its intended design when it seems to have a humanlike mind. These
results suggest meaningful consequences of humanizing technology, and also
offer insights into the inverse process of objectifying humans.
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