Can computers be teammates?

This study investigated the claim that humans will readily form team relationships with computers . Drawing from the group dynamic literature in human – human interactions , a laboratory experiment ( n 5 56) manipulated identity and interdependence to create team af filiation in a human – computer interaction . The data show that subjects who are told they are interdependent with the computer af filiate with the computer as a team . The data also show that the ef fects of being in a team with a computer are the same as the ef fects of being in a team with another human : 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 the computer friendlier , and conformed more to the computer’s information . Subjects in the identity conditions showed neither team af filiation nor the ef fects of team af filiation . ÷ 1996 Academic Press Limited