Why are we averse towards Algorithms? A comprehensive literature Review on Algorithm aversion
Bibliographic record
Abstract
With technological developments in artificial intelligence, algorithms are increasingly capable to perform tasks that were considered to be unique for humans. However, literature suggests that although algorithms are often superior in performance, users are reluctant to interact with algorithms instead of human agents – a phenomenon known as algorithm aversion. But, as algorithm aversion is attracting scientific attention, empirical findings are inconclusive and papers find the opposite effect of algorithm appreciation. With this literature review, we synthesize evidence from 29 publications with 84 distinct experimental studies to investigate how algorithm characteristics and human agents’ characteristics influence algorithm aversion. We show how algorithm agency, performance, perceived capabilities and human involvement as well as human agents’ expertise and social distance, influence whether users develop algorithm aversion, i.e., choose humans over algorithms, utilize humans’ support more often and evaluate humans’ actions more favourable. Furthermore, we provide a systematic conceptualization of aversion as a biased assessment and develop propositions for future research. With our work, we contribute to algorithm aversion literature and the contemporary discussion on the impact of algorithmic agents on the future of work. We indicate that the emerging literature stream on algorithm aversion is worth considering for human-computer interaction researchers.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.019 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.005 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".