Aviation Consumers’ Trust in Pilots: A Cognitive or Emotional Function

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 2 2-17-2014 Aviation Consumers’ Trust in Pilots: A Cognitive or Emotional Function Scott R. Winter Florida Institute of Technology, Stephen Rice Florida Institute of Technology, Rian Mehta Florida Institute of Technology, Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/ijaaa Part of the Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Scholarly Commons Citation Winter, S. R., Rice, S., & Mehta, R. (2014). Aviation Consumers’ Trust in Pilots: A Cognitive or Emotional Function. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.15394/ ijaaa.2014.1003 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact . Aviation Consumers’ Trust in Pilots: A Cognitive or Emotional Function Cover Page Footnote Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank the 1st annual Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace International Research (A3IR) Conference held January 17th-18th, 2014 in Phoenix, AZ and presented by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where much of this data was presented. This article is available in International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace: https://commons.erau.edu/ ijaaa/vol1/iss1/2 Winter et al.: Trust in Pilots Stigmas may be very influential to person’s opinions of others. Research has been completed in other fields to determine how these stigmas impact others (Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998; Link & Phelan, 2001; Mahjan et al., 2008); however, the current study is unique in the fact that it seeks to find how a sample of Indian participants respond when provided different descriptions of a pilot about to fly their imaginary flight, and what might mediate their trust in the pilot. Using a scenario, participants were asked to rate their trust in pilots based on various descriptors of age, weight, gender, and ethnicity. The results of this study are likely to be impacted by social stigmas, affect, and trust. Social Stigmas Social stigmas are essentially prejudices that are held against an individual for either belonging to a group or being perceived to belong to a group (Crocker et al., 1998), and which typically diminishes that individual’s value in the eyes of others (Link & Phelan, 2001; Mahjan et al., 2008). The result of stigmas can have deteriorating effects, and research has shown that stigmas correlate with conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even sexual risk-taking (Preston, D’Augelli, Kassab, & Starks, 2007; Simbayi et al., 2007; Vanable, Carey, Blaire, & Littlewood, 2006; Whetten, Reif, Whetten, & MurphyMcMillan, 2008). Stigmas can be the result of either physical or mental disabilities/illness or sexual orientation (Berscheid & Walster, 1974; Farina, 1982; Harris, Harris, & Bochner, 1982; Newman, 1976), and the result of these prejudices can ultimately be social, interpersonal, and economic hindrances to the afflicted person(s) (Crocker & Major, 1989; Crocker, Voelkl, Testa & Major, 1991; Jones et al., 1984). Obese persons have been the result of bias in a number of fields such as among employers, teachers, nurses, mental health professionals, and landlords (Puhl & Brownell, 2003). The ageism stigma has also become more prevalent within industry (Rupp, Vodanovich, & Crede, 2006), a stigma largely based on the idea that as a person ages, their skills and performance will also degrade. By the year 2020, it is anticipated that 39% of the workforce will be over 55 years old (Williams & Nussbaum, 2001). These stigmas can be especially harmful due to the fact that when mistakes are made, they may be attributed as the reason for the error, whether or not this assumption is correct. Stigmas have also had a large influence on women in aviation. Women still remain a small percentage of the pilot workforce (Mitchell, Kristovics, & Vermeulen, 2006; Vermeulen, 2009), and the impact of stigmas remains present within the pilot population. Research also indicates that there are competing Published by Scholarly Commons, 2014 1 International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, Vol. 1 [2014], Iss. 1, Art. 2 opinions of female integration into the airline cockpit (Mitchell et al., 2006). Some males tended to remain chauvinistic in their comments, while others were more accepting of the addition of women into the pilot population. Women expressed concerns over having to still earn respect of their male colleagues. These findings suggest that stigmas have played a role in participants’ viewpoints toward women. Social Stigmas and Affect It is theorized that these stigmas, at least in part, are the result of negative emotional reactions (Pryor, Reeder, Yeadon, & Hesson-McInnis, 2004). Therefore, it is plausible that affect may play a key role in the stigmatization of certain groups of people. The formation of these stigmas may not be entirely cognitive processes, but rather strongly influenced by affect. This emotional response can be strong and often guides information processing and judgment (Zajonc, 1980). Affect may help complete mental models when the cognitive complexity exceeds rational ability (Lee & See, 2004), help focus attention on relevant details, manages priorities, and encourages people to avoid situations that may result in negative outcomes (Damasio, 1996). The affect heuristic, studied by Alhakami and Slovic (1994), suggests that persons respond quickly and frequently unconsciously to determine if something is good or bad. Heuristics are frequently used as a form of mental shortcut to arrive at a decision quickly. They are usually associated with previous experiences. The affect heuristic is commonly used in a cost/benefit analysis to predict the judgment of risk and benefit, regardless of the actual risk and benefit. Finucane, Alhakami, Slovic, & Johnson (2000) found this heuristic to be strong when asking people to rate their views of a technological enhancement. When the risk was low, individuals reported the technology as favorable. However, when the risk was high, the inverse occurred. Further research has shown that time pressure (Finucan et al., 2000) and emotional responses (Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee, & Welch, 2001) have also increased this inverse relationship. Somewhat parallel to the affect heuristic is a concept called affective referral. Found in the realm of cognitive psychology, affective referral is the concept that consumers will rely on their overall liking of a product instead of completing a detailed pro/con assessment (Wright, 1975). Clearly, affect has a powerful impact on one’s perceptions, and it is theorized that this emotional response may also play a rule in the trust one places in an individual, such a (...truncated)