Decision Time Constraints and Trust Propagation in Multi-Operator Multi-Autonomy Teaming

Modern human–autonomy teams (HATs) often operate under time constraints that limit individuals’ ability to fully evaluate recommendations from the automation and autonomous systems. In these settings, people may rely not only on their own interactions with autonomy, but also on cues from their teammates. This study examines how decision time constraints influence trust propagation in multi-operator, multi-autonomy (MOMA) teams. Participants worked in pairs with two drones in a repeated threat-detection task, making rapid decisions under either standard (3.0 s) or constrained (1.7 s) time conditions. After each round, participants reported their trust in both drones and their teammate, allowing us to quantify how trust propagates based on teammate-reported trust. Results show that trust propagates between teammates in both conditions ( p < . 001), with stronger effects under tighter time constraints (3.0 s: b = 0.29; 1.7 s: b = 0.35). These findings highlight the role of social influences on trust in time-constrained environments and inform the design of human–autonomy systems for high-tempo operations.