Trust the AI, Doubt Yourself: The Effect of Urgency on Self-Confidence in Human-AI Interaction
Pith reviewed 2026-05-10 17:48 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Urgency in human-AI interactions leaves trust in the AI unchanged but reduces users' self-confidence and self-efficacy.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
In an experiment with thirty participants, the presence of urgency in human-AI interactions does not affect trust in the AI. It does, however, lower the human user's self-confidence and self-efficacy. Over time the loss of confidence can produce performance loss, suboptimal decisions, human errors, and ultimately unsustainable AI systems. Users felt more confident in their work when eased into the human-AI setup rather than exposed to it without preparation.
What carries the argument
The controlled comparison of urgent versus non-urgent AI prompts, with direct measurements of trust, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.
Load-bearing premise
The self-confidence and self-efficacy changes measured in this thirty-person experiment will hold for other tasks, larger groups, and real-world settings.
What would settle it
A follow-up study that tracks self-confidence across multiple sessions or larger samples and finds no difference between urgent and non-urgent conditions.
Figures
read the original abstract
Studies show that interactions with an AI system fosters trust in human users towards AI. An often overlooked element of such interaction dynamics is the (sense of) urgency when the human user is prompted by an AI agent, e.g., for advice or guidance. In this paper, we show that although the presence of urgency in human-AI interactions does not affect the trust in AI, it may be detrimental to the human user's self-confidence and self-efficacy. In the long run, the loss of confidence may lead to performance loss, suboptimal decisions, human errors, and ultimately, unsustainable AI systems. Our evidence comes from an experiment with 30 human participants. Our results indicate that users may feel more confident in their work when they are eased into the human-AI setup rather than exposed to it without preparation. We elaborate on the implications of this finding for software engineers and decision-makers.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper claims that urgency in human-AI interactions does not affect users' trust in AI but can detrimentally impact their self-confidence and self-efficacy. Evidence is drawn from a 30-participant experiment showing higher confidence when users are eased into the setup rather than exposed abruptly; the authors argue this may lead to long-term performance loss, suboptimal decisions, errors, and unsustainable AI systems, with implications for software engineers and decision-makers.
Significance. If the core empirical pattern holds after addressing methodological gaps, the result would usefully extend human-AI trust literature by isolating urgency as a factor that selectively erodes self-confidence without altering AI trust. This could inform interface design guidelines for time-sensitive AI deployments (e.g., advisory or decision-support systems) to preserve user agency and reduce downstream risks of over-reliance or disengagement.
major comments (2)
- [Experiment section] Experiment section: The manuscript reports results from only 30 participants. No power analysis, a priori sample-size justification, or effect-size reporting (e.g., Cohen's d or partial eta-squared) is provided for the self-confidence/self-efficacy measures. Because the central claim rests on the reliability of the observed detriment under urgency, the absence of these statistics leaves the statistical robustness and generalizability of the finding unclear.
- [Results section] Results section: The abstract and summary state that urgency 'does not affect the trust in AI' yet 'may be detrimental' to self-confidence, but no statistical tests, p-values, confidence intervals, or manipulation-check outcomes are referenced. Without these details it is impossible to assess whether the null effect on trust and the negative effect on confidence are distinguishable from noise or from individual-difference confounds.
minor comments (1)
- [Abstract and Introduction] The abstract and introduction use 'self-confidence' and 'self-efficacy' interchangeably without clarifying whether distinct validated scales were administered or whether they were treated as a single construct.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the constructive and detailed feedback, which highlights important areas for improving the methodological transparency of our work. We address each major comment below and commit to revisions that enhance the statistical reporting without altering the core claims.
read point-by-point responses
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Referee: [Experiment section] The manuscript reports results from only 30 participants. No power analysis, a priori sample-size justification, or effect-size reporting (e.g., Cohen's d or partial eta-squared) is provided for the self-confidence/self-efficacy measures. Because the central claim rests on the reliability of the observed detriment under urgency, the absence of these statistics leaves the statistical robustness and generalizability of the finding unclear.
Authors: We agree that N=30 is modest for the central claims and that the original submission lacks sufficient statistical justification and effect-size reporting. The study was designed as an initial exploration of urgency effects in human-AI interaction, drawing on similar small-sample paradigms in the trust literature. In the revised manuscript we will add a post-hoc power analysis for the self-confidence and self-efficacy measures, report effect sizes (Cohen's d and partial eta-squared), include an a priori sample-size rationale based on prior human-AI studies, and expand the limitations section to discuss generalizability. We will also consider whether a follow-up study with larger N is warranted. revision: yes
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Referee: [Results section] The abstract and summary state that urgency 'does not affect the trust in AI' yet 'may be detrimental' to self-confidence, but no statistical tests, p-values, confidence intervals, or manipulation-check outcomes are referenced. Without these details it is impossible to assess whether the null effect on trust and the negative effect on confidence are distinguishable from noise or from individual-difference confounds.
Authors: We acknowledge that the abstract and high-level summary do not reference the underlying statistics, which reduces clarity. The full results section contains the relevant analyses (non-significant effects on trust measures with associated p-values and CIs; significant negative effects on self-confidence/self-efficacy with p-values, CIs, and effect sizes), along with manipulation checks for the urgency induction. In the revision we will update the abstract and summary to explicitly cite these statistics, add a dedicated manipulation-check subsection, and discuss potential individual-difference confounds with any available covariates. This will allow readers to evaluate the null and significant findings directly. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No circularity: empirical experiment reports observed outcomes with no derivation or equation-based claims
full rationale
The paper is a report of a 30-participant human experiment measuring effects of urgency on AI trust and user self-confidence/self-efficacy. No equations, derivations, first-principles claims, fitted parameters renamed as predictions, or self-citation chains appear in the provided text. The central claim rests on direct experimental observations rather than any reduction to inputs by construction. Generalization beyond the specific setup is an empirical assumption (not a circular step), and the reader's assessment of score 1.0 aligns with the absence of any load-bearing definitional or predictive circularity.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
axioms (1)
- standard math Standard assumptions for statistical comparison of conditions in a user study (e.g., appropriate use of t-tests or ANOVA)
Reference graph
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