Trust perception in multimodal user interfaces

The deployment of Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs) with advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) has significantly transformed health information seeking and dissemination, facilitating immediate and interactive communication between users and digital health resources. However, while trust is crucial for adopting online health advice, how the dissemination interface influences people’s perceived trust in health information provided by LLMs remains unclear. To address this, we conducted a mixed-methods, within-subjects lab study (N=20) to investigate how different CUIs (i.e., a text-based, speech-based, and embodied interface) affect user-perceived trust levels when delivering health information from an identical LLM source. Our key findings showed that: (a) participants’ trust levels in health information delivered were significantly variant across different interfaces; (b) there is a significant correlation between trust in health-related information and trust in the delivered user interface as well as the usability level of the user interface; (c) the type of health questions did not affect participants’ perceived trust; and (d) participants’ prior experience with various interfaces, processing approaches for information with different modalities, and presentation styles were key determinants of trust in health-related information. Our study taps into differences in trust perceptions of health information from LLMs and its dissemination. We highlight the potential of various LLM-powered CUIs in health-related information-seeking contexts. We contribute key factors and considerations for ensuring effective and reliable personal health information seeking in the age of LLM-powered CUIs and multi-modal information dissemination.