In Mixed Reality (MR), in-the-moment guidance can support physical tasks under time and attention constraints. In contexts where such guidance is embodied, users must rapidly evaluate whether to trust and follow an advisor’s recommendations. Prior work has examined how avatar representation shapes trust and social perception, but less is known about user responses when guidance conflicts and multiple embodied agents compete for attention in real time. We study trust-relevant perception and behavior in an MR paradigm where two co-present agents represent the same advisor and deliver step-by-step instructions with predefined disagreements. In a within-subjects study, we compared a volumetric avatar (VA) and a high-fidelity 3D character avatar (CA), holding identity and expressive behavior constant, and measured trust, social presence, and behavioral adherence during contradictory steps. Rendering style produced no detectable differences in trust, social presence, or co-presence. Instead, participants managed disagreement through mixed adherence and switching between agents, suggesting that instruction competition and time pressure strongly shape decision-making. These findings position conflicting guidance as a distinct context for studying trust in embodied agents, where compliance may reflect rapid prioritization rather than stable commitment to a representation. We discuss implications for designing and evaluating MR agents when timing and attention constraints can overshadow representation cues.
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