The Impact of Cultural Values on Human-AI Collaboration in a Decision-Making Task

Abstract: As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly part of everyday life including transportation, manufacturing, etc., it is important to understand how humans utilize AI to achieve an effective human-AI collaboration. Furthermore, it may be possible that one’s interaction with AI is influenced by differences in their cultural values. Currently, literature on cognition differences in cultural values that go beyond the Eastern and Western comparison is lacking. Consequently, the current study examined how behavior and performance in a decision-making (DM) task are influenced by differences in individual cultural values and the presence of an AI decision aide. To examine cultural values, we used Hofstede’s (1984) cultural dimensions: power distance, masculinity, long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and collectivism. Participants completed a DM task consisting of local shapes (e.g., squares and diamonds) encompassed by a larger global shape. They were asked to determine if there were more squares or diamonds from the local shapes, while ignoring the global shape. The global shape matched (GC) or mismatched (GI) the local answer, or the global shape was absent (LO). Participants’ DM was aided by high (80%) or low (60%) accuracy AI. Results showed higher accuracy and faster response times in GC and GI compared to LO. Eye tracking data indicated fewer fixations and longer dwell times in GC and GI compared to LO. Taken together, this may indicate that the global shape, whether it matched or mismatched the correct answer, reduced perceptual demand by acting as a boundary to constrain visual attention. In relation to cultural dimensions, increases in collectivism and long-term orientation predicted decreases in performance only when there was no AI while increases in power distance predicted increases in performance when there was no AI and when AI was highly accurate. Overall, performance may be influenced by cultural values and an AI decision aide.The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Distribution A. Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. AFRL-2025-0181; Cleared 15 Jan 2025.

Keywords: Culture, Artificial Intelligence, Decision-Making, Performance

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006628

Cite this paper:

​