Trust and etiquette in high-criticality automated systems

Whereas the other articles in this section discuss human-computer etiquette in traditional social interactions involving the use of computers that explicitly strive to elicit a perception of “personhood ” from the human participant, we focus on computers that occupy more traditional roles as complex and largely unpersonified machines involved in high-criticality working relationships with humans—where the consequences of failure can be catastrophic in terms of lives, money, or both. Politeness and social niceties are important in many human-human social interactions, but in critical, highly technical work, there is the common misperception that we can “dispense with protocol ” and get down to business, even with those who are not particularly courteous. In fact, excessive adherence to polite norms can seem stilted and