IT as a Utility Network+ community conference 19-20 June 2014, Southampton (ITaaU Network+)

1. The value of trust:
understanding the
scale and depth of
the user’s
perspective
Koen Willaert
Shenja van der Graaf
IT as a Utility
Conference
Southampton

2. Starting point

3. Context
 Importance of trust in online environments
is widely acknowledged.
 Even though trust is important in real world
too, this is even more so online due to the
lack of the providers’ physical presence
and the rare frequency of transactions
between two entities.

4. Trust definition
Trust in an ICT system is a property of
individual users of the system representing
their subjective view about the system.
Users who don’t trust the system are
disinclined to use it.
OPTET takes the view that trust is a good
thing, because it helps users to benefit from
new, innovative ICT systems which they
might otherwise reject.

5. Trust definition broken up
 Two actors: trustor + trustee
 Risk assessment + decision making
 Two outcomes: trust level and the trustor’s
decision to engage (or not) with a trustee
by taking into account the associated risks
and benefits.

6. … has
received
sufficient
attention, yet
general
tendency to
readily assume
that trust is
intrinsically
beneficial…

7. Is trust intrinsically beneficial?
 ‘A market in which participants are trusted
to the correct degree is as efficient as a
market with complete trustworthiness’ *
 Thus, high trust is not panacea but trust
should correctly reflect trustworthiness!
* Brainov, Sandholm, “Contracting with uncertain level of trust”, In Proceedings of the 1st
ACM conference on Electronic commerce (EC '99)

8. Finding the correct balance
Trust
Worthy
Trust

9. Information Asymmetry

10. Goal OPTET: reaching a next level
of automation in this process
10

11. Gap
Social sciences:
Trust antecedents
Impact of ‘trust by
design’ solutions
….
Computer sciences:
Computational
models
Autonomous
decision making
Reputation
systems/
recommenders
…

12. Gap
Social sciences:
Abstract/general
level
Predicting trust in
specific system in
particular situation?
Subgroups/segmen
tation?
Researching
Trustworthiness?
Computer sciences:
….it is widely
recognized that trust
is highly subjective
… but the effects of
trustor’s attributes
are in most cases
ignored in
computational trust
models

13. Goal
 Explore for both
individual trustors
as for
organisations/servi
ce providers issues
related to finding
the right balance
between Trust and
Trustworthiness
 Research and
integrate subjective
attributes in a trust
computational
model for individual
trustors towards an
online system

14. Survey research based on model
McKnight

15. Results Individual
trustors

16. Methodology
Datamining on 8 trust related
concepts:
Trust stance
Trust beliefs in general
professionals
Institution based trust
General trust sense levels
ICT-domain specific sense of
trust levels
Motivation to engage in
trust related seeking
behavior
Trust related
competences
Perceived importance of
trustworthiness design elements
Survey details:
Online survey
Period: February-March 2013
28 countries
Major representation of UK
(32%) and Greece (18%)
90 subjects included in analysis
Mostly 5 point Likert scale items
K-means clustering for
segmentation purposes
Anova
16

17. Trust seeking behaviour
18/03/2014 17
General
(n= 90)
High Trust
(n = 24)
Ambivalent
(n= 20)
Highly
active
Trust
seeking
(n=28)
Medium
active
Trust
seeking
(n=18)
Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean F Sig.
I look for information about the reputation of the organization 4,01 3,83 3,75 4,50 3,78 4,307 ,007
I look for information about the (physical) location of the
organization
3,61 3,42 3,20 4,29 3,28 7,980 ,000
I look for information about laws that are applicable with regard
to my interaction with the organization
3,07 2,75 2,50 3,86 2,89 14,627 ,000
I look for any guarantees regarding confidentiality of the
information that I provide
3,67 3,38 3,00 4,54 3,44 14,992 ,000
I look for any information about complaint procedures in case
of problems
3,37 2,79 2,90 4,18 3,39 14,188 ,000
I look for any information about who is liable in case of
problems
3,28 2,67 2,70 4,25 3,22 20,876 ,000
I look for trust marks or seals of approval 3,58 3,42 3,15 4,18 3,33 6,289 ,001
Anova
Motivation to engage in trust related seeking behavior

18. Individual trustors segments
Ambivalent
22%
Ambivalent
22%
Highly
Active trust
seeking
31%
Highly
Active trust
seeking
31%
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%
High Trust
27%
High Trust
27%

19. Segment 1: Ambivalent Trust
Ambivalent
22%
Ambivalent
22%
 Medium to high
trust stance
 Moderate seeking
activity
 Low competence
level
 ‘Forced’ trust
 Simple heuristics

20. Segment 2: High Trust
 High trust stance
 Limited seeking
activity
 Medium
competence level
High Trust
27%
High Trust
27%

21. Segment 3: Highly active trust
seeking
 Low to medium
trust stance
 Very thorough
trustworthiness
investigations
beyond cues from
service provider
 Medium
competence level
 Procedures in case
of problems
Highly
active trust
seeking
31%
Highly
active trust
seeking
31%

22. Segment 4: Medium active trust
seeking
 Low to medium
trust stance
 Medium level
seeking activity
 Medium to high
competence level
 Procedures in case
of problems
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%

23. Trust levels
General
(n= 90)
High Trust
(n = 24)
Ambivalent
(n= 20)
Highly
active
Trust
seeking
(n=28)
Medium
active
Trust
seeking
(n=18)
Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean F Sig.
Online stores 3,92 4,21 4,00 3,57 4,00 5,247 ,002
Social networks 3,30 3,88 3,35 2,96 3,00 4,266 ,007
Professional online networks 3,69 4,21 3,63 3,30 3,63 4,474 ,006
Online governmental services 4,17 4,63 4,45 3,71 3,94 10,214 ,000
Online banking 4,27 4,63 4,70 3,75 4,11 7,999 ,000
Online health services 3,67 4,33 4,00 3,00 2,89 11,014 ,000
Online review sites 3,19 3,30 3,05 3,21 3,18 ,391 ,760
Anova
ICT-domain

24. Results
Organisations /
service providers

25. Methodology Organizations
Datamining on trust related
concepts:
Trust stance
Trust beliefs in general
professionals
Institution based trust
General trust sense levels
ICT-domain specific sense of
trust levels
Motivation to engage in
trust related seeking
behavior
Trust related
competences
Active assessment of the
trustworthiness of own and third
party applications
Trustworthiness design
elements
Survey details:
Online survey
Period: February-March 2013
Pool of international, national,
regional and local organisations
48 commercial organisation + 57
public organisations
Mostly 5 point Likert scale items
K-means clustering for
segmentation purposes
Anova
25

26. Organisational profile segments
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%
High Trust
High
seeking
39%
High Trust
High
seeking
39%
High Trust
Low seeking
26%
High Trust
Low seeking
26%

27. Organisational segment 1:
Low trust – Low Competency
 Lower ability to understand
terms of services and to
detect threats and misuses
 Trustworthiness assessments
are likely to be less efficient or
inaccurate
 Negative views towards the
professionalism and the
expertise of other parties
 Ambivalence
 Lower ability to provide
guarantees to customers
 Lower ability to provide
information about applicable
laws governing their
relationship with their
customers
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%

28. Organisational segment 2:
High trust – Low seeking
 Risk of overestimating the
actual trustworthiness
 Lower motivation to collect
trustworthiness information
(for instance real time
monitoring)
 Intend to provide less
guarantees to customers
 Intend to provide less
information about applicable
laws governing their
relationship with their
customers
 Less concerned about the
influence of current and near
future technology trends on
online trust/privacy and online
trust/security
High Trust
Low seeking
26%
High Trust
Low seeking
26%

29. Organisational segment 3:
Low trust – High seeking
 Less risk inducing behaviors
than the two previous clusters
 Less positive view on current
and future safeguards,
regulations and technological
advances
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%

30. Organisational segment 4:
High trust – High seeking
 High trust stance and positive
views on current and future
safeguards, regulations and
technological advances.
 Active seeking behavior
High Trust
High
seeking
39%
High Trust
High
seeking
39%

31. Implications

32. Mapping Individual and organisational
segments
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%
Low Trust
High
seeking
28%
High Trust
High
seeking
39%
High Trust
High
seeking
39%
Highly
active trust
seeking
31%
Highly
active trust
seeking
31%
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%
Medium
Active trust
seeking
20%
High Trust
Low seeking
26%
High Trust
Low seeking
26%
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%
Low Trust
Low
competence
6%
Ambivalent
22%
Ambivalent
22%
High Trust
26%
High Trust
26%

33. Tailored ‘Trust by design’ solutions
AmbivalentAmbivalent
 Referrals
 Easy to scan,
simple and
straightforward
cues
 Familiarity
 Technically working
well

34. Tailored ‘Trust by design’ solutions
 Quick scanning of
cues
 Look & feelHigh Trust
Low seeking
High Trust
Low seeking

35. Tailored ‘Trust by design’ solutions
 Clear terms of
service + data
policy
 Contact
information
 Outline on legal
frameworks
 Offers a complaint
mechanism
 Large set + variety
of cues
Highly
Active trust
seeking
Highly
Active trust
seeking

36. Tailored ‘Trust by design’ solutions
 Clear terms of
service + data
policy
 Display the
financing
organization
Medium
Active trust
seeking
Medium
Active trust
seeking

37. Risks associated to organisational
trust profiles
High Trust
Low seeking
High Trust
Low seeking
Low Trust
Low
competence
Low Trust
Low
competence
Low Trust
High
seeking
Low Trust
High
seeking
High Trust
High
seeking
High Trust
High
seeking
 Negative
outlook on
future trends
and
development
s
 ? Inaccurate
trustworthine
ss estimation,
 Inability to
explain terms
of services /
offer
guarantees
 A too high
trust level in
comparison
to the actual
trustworthine
ss

38. Conclusions +
outcome

39. Conclusion
 Both congruence + asymmetry between individual
trustors and organisational profiles
 Diverging implications
 Prioritizations in terms of actions for
organisations/service providers
 Services providers need to develop ‘trust by
design’ solutions targeted various trustors
segments

40. Outcome: Trust Modelling and Estimation
based on subjective attributes
40
High TrustHigh Trust Ambivalent
trust
Ambivalent
trust
Highly active
trust seeking
Highly active
trust seeking
Medium active
trust seeking
Medium active
trust seeking
Trust stanceTrust stance
Trust related
competences
Trust related
competences
Motivation to engage in
trust seeking behavior
Motivation to engage in
trust seeking behavior
User segments
Core trust attributes underlying segmentation
Translation of trust attributes into trust estimator

41. Future work