The safety of the National Airspace System is reliant upon the partnership between pilots and air traffic controllers facilitated through verbal communications. When the partnership based on trust is strong, the pilot is able to better manage the complexities associated with flying in congested airspace and reduce the possibility of certain errors. Studying barriers to communication is important in understanding how trust is built and maintained. Bias has been shown to be a barrier to trust in communications and aviation. Previous studies have researched trust in air traffic automation and trust based on confidence in the controller’s speech. However, a search of the literature revealed no discussions of trust based on the accent of the controller. Being able to detect accent bias is an important first step in being able to address issues and reduce the risk associated with communications problems. The purpose of the current project is to assess a pilot’s trust in controllers based on the controller’s accent as a first step in creating a model to predict trust in controllers. Participants will be presented audio recordings of various air traffic controllers and then rate their perceived trust in the controller. Results of the study will be presented.

Keywords: trust, accent bias, air traffic control