Human Redundancy in Automation Monitoring: Effects of Social Loafing and Social Compensation

Abstract

The present study addresses effects of social loafing and social compensation in automation monitoring. Thirty-six participants performed a multi-task, consisting of three sub-tasks which simulate work demands of operators in a chemical plant. One of the tasks involved the monitoring of an automated process. Participants were randomly assigned to three different groups: (1) “Non-Redundant”: participants worked on all tasks alone. (2) “Redundant”: participants were informed that a second crewmember would work in parallel on the monitoring task. (3) “Informed-Redundant”: like the “redundant” condition with the additional information that the crewmate's monitoring performance might be low. Results provide evidence of social loafing and social compensation effects in automation monitoring. Participants in the “redundant” condition cross-checked the automation significantly less than participants in the other groups. This result suggests that human redundancy might not always be the best solution to enhance safety, but might even lead to riskier operator behavior.