Contextual Differences in the Dynamic Measurement of Trust in Websites

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to better understand a user's trust in web sites designed for three different contexts: commerce, health and news. The study evaluates changes in self-reported user trust ratings as the users interacted with different website elements. Differences in user trust ratings were observed between websites, suggesting changes in trust ratings are likely related to website context. Therefore, consumers may develop different thresholds of trust based on usability, privacy, and content based on the context of the website. The results can be used to design web sites across contexts in order to foster appropriate user trust.Keywords: Trust, Web Sites, Usability, Dynamic EvaluationINTRODUCTIONOnline trust is defined as "an attitude of confident expectation in an online situation of risk that one's vulnerabilities will not be exploited" (Corritore, Kracher, & Wiedenbeck, 2003, p. 740). There are a myriad of stimuli, cues, knowledge, past experiences and beliefs that can influence trust. The most frequently cited definition of trust is "the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party" (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). For the present study, Mayer et al.'s (1995) definition of trust was extended to encompass the growing necessity for trust between humans and technology. Trust was defined as the user's relationship with an interface and the expectation that the technology (web sites) will correctly perform in a particular situation.The inherent nature of trust is dynamic (Vega, Sun, McCrickard, & Harrison, 2010); trust can be expected to increase and decrease over time based on reliability and performance factors. Zahedi and Song (2008) introduced the concept that user trust in web sites evolves over time. According to Zahedi and Song, it is essential to observe the causes that enable users to change their level of trust in a website over time. Trust is also subjective and context dependent, as it evolves over time through new experiences (Coetzee & Eloff, 2005). However, most studies look strictly at initial trust and its impact on user intention and behavior (Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky, & Vitale, 2000). To date, there has been very little research that describes how users' trust in web sites evolves or the time necessary for a user to establish trust (Zahedi & Song, 2008). The few studies that have observed users' trust in health websites over time (Sillence, Briggs, Harris, & Fishwick, 2006; Song & Zahedi, 2007; Zahedi & Song, 2008) have done so using only a single type of website, such as health infomediaries (online health information providers). When encountering new information, people compare their current experience to previous experiences and knowledge (Norman, 1983). Well-designed websites can act as a person's virtual representation of a physical construct. The more congruent the virtual representation is to the individual's existing mental model of the construct, the more likely the person is to have a comfortable initial interaction. Aligning the website with the user's expectations also allows users to remember the website (Roth, Schmutz, Pauwels, Bargas-Avila, & Opwis, 2010). Both initial and subsequent trust ratings of a newly encountered site might be influenced by (1) the degree to which the characteristics of the virtual representation matches the individual's mental model and (2) the individual's expectations of the functional properties of similar types of web sites (see Figure 1). As the individual interacts with the web site, their mental model may change and become more detailed (Roth et al., 2010). It is expected that the user's trust will change as the individual's mental model changes. For this reason, it is extremely important to understand the process by which the user interacts with the website and, in turn, updates their mental model and trust in the website (Figure 1). …