Examining the Relationship Between Familiarity and Reliability of Automation in the Cockpit

This study sought to determine the correlation between familiarity and perceptions of reliability, as associated to specific aviation-related automated devices. Participants’ experience levels ranged from non-pilots to novice pilots to certified flight instructors. It was hypothesized that familiarity has a direct correlation with ratings of reliability for various aviation-related automated devices and that the correlation across devices for each participant would be positive. The researchers expected to find a difference in the familiarity-reliability relationship as a function of experience. Findings showed that there was a significant positive correlation between familiarity and reliability for every single automated device. A positive correlation across automated devices for 87% of the participants was also found. Interestingly, the study did not find any relationship between experience and the familiarity-reliability relationship

Aviation Consumers’ Trust in Pilots: A Cognitive or Emotional Function

Previous research has shown that stigmas play an important role in trust. While previous research has focused on trust in individuals with stigmas in various settings, no research that we know of has specifically looked at trust in pilots as a function of their stigmas, and what might mediate those effects. In two studies, we asked Indian participants to rate their trust in pilots as a function of gender, age, weight and ethnicity. The results of the first study indicated that Indians trusted female pilots less than male pilots, older pilots less than younger pilots, obese pilots less than slim pilots, and Arab pilots less than Indian pilots. The second study replicated these findings and revealed that Affect plays a dominant mediating role between each condition and trust

A Trustworthiness of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-CAP) Scale for Indian Consumers

A Trustworthiness of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-CAP) Scale was created for the purpose of measuring consumer perceptions about the trustworthiness of pilots in India. Previous research has used several different types of trust and trustworthiness scales, but none of them focus on pilot trustworthiness, particularly with an Indian consumer base. This paper outlines the process by which we validated the scale and tested reliability. We had 679 participants join in the process of determining the items that belonged in the scale, narrowing down the choices to highly relevant items, and testing the final scale. A factor analysis using the principle components and varimax rotation produced a single factor for the condition of trustworthiness, and all the items strongly loaded on this one factor. Reliability was tested via Cronbach’s Alpha and Guttmann’s Split-half test. Finally, the scale was tested in an experimental setting to determine discriminability. All tests provided evidence of high validity, reliability and discriminability