The Distruster — Why We Distrust Algorithms Faster Than Humans
SCIENCE
"I don't trust it. Who knows what's really behind it."
The Real Research
Dietvorst, Simmons & Massey (2015, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General) coined the term algorithm aversion after a series of experiments with a clear, counterintuitive result: people choosing between a human forecaster and a statistical algorithm often pick the human — even after watching the algorithm outperform the human themselves. More specifically: people lose confidence in an algorithm faster than in a human after watching it make the exact same mistake.
This isn't irrational stubbornness without a cause — follow-up research found that transparency (understanding how the system reaches an answer) increases trust, while cost and the feeling of lost control decrease it. Distrust of AI is often specifically distrust of a black box, not of "new technology" in general.
THE MIRROR QUESTION
Do you distrust the technology itself — or the feeling that you've lost control?
DONE WHEN...
You can explain why "they just don’t trust it" often actually means "they can’t see how it reaches an answer" — and what can and can’t be done about that.
Reference
Dietvorst, B.J., Simmons, J.P., & Massey, C. (2015). Algorithm aversion: People erroneously avoid algorithms after seeing them err. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(1), 114–126.