CAN COMPUTERS BE TEAMMATES

This study investigated the claim that humans will readily form team r elationships with computers. Drawing from the group dynamic literature in human-human interactions, a laboratory experiment (n = 56) manipul ated identity and interdependence to create team affiliation in a huma n-computer interaction. The data show that subjects who are told they are interdependent with the compute; affiliate with the computer as a team. The data also show that the effects of being in a team with a co mputer are the same as the effects of being in a team with another hum an: subjects in the interdependence conditions perceived the computer to be more similar to themselves, saw themselves as more cooperative, were more open to influence from the computer, thought the information from the computer was of higher quality, found the information from t he computer friendlier, and conformed more to the computer's informati on. Subjects in the identity conditions showed neither team affiliatio n nor the effects of team affiliation. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited