User Trust in New Battle Management Technology: The Effect of Mistrust on Situation Awareness

This chapter discusses the importance of user trust in new technology for Situation Awareness (SA) acquisition and maintenance in the military. SA is widely accepted to be a key consideration during system design. The analysis presented was undertaken in the context of land warfare mission planning and battle management activities, both of which involve distributed teams engaging in collaborative activities. Trust in the technology being used, in particular with regard to the information being presented by technologies, is therefore of paramount importance in this domain. Key to augmenting user trust in new battle management system technologies is the presentation of accurate information during mission planning and battle execution. The propositional network analysis revealed various instances during mission planning and execution activities where the battle management system in fact presented erroneous information to its users. The chapter focuses on levels of trust in new battle management system technology and its effect on SA.