Bente, Gary, Dratsch, Thomas, Kaspar, Kai ORCID: 0000-0002-5092-6798, Haessler, Tabea, Bungard, Oliver and Al-Issa, Ahmad (2014). Cultures of Trust: Effects of Avatar Faces and Reputation Scores on German and Arab Players in an Online Trust-Game. PLoS One, 9 (6). SAN FRANCISCO: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. ISSN 1932-6203

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Reputation systems as well as seller depictions (photos; avatars) have been shown to reduce buyer uncertainty and to foster trust in online trading. With the emergence of globalized e-markets, it remains an urgent question whether these mechanisms, found to be effective for Western cultures, also apply to other cultures. Hypothesizing that members of collectivistic cultures in contrast to those of individualistic cultures would rely more on visual social cues (seller faces) than on factual information (reputation scores), we compared buying decisions of Arab and German participants in an experimental trust game. Photo-realistic avatars were used instead of photos to control facial features and expressions. The results revealed significant main effects for both reputation scores and avatar faces. Moreover, both variables significantly affected the purchase behavior of Arab as well as German buyers, suggesting cross-cultural universals in the processing of trust cues. The results have implications for future cross-cultural studies in e-commerce as well as the design of online markets and shared virtual environments.

Item Type: Journal Article
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Bente, GaryUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Dratsch, ThomasUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Kaspar, KaiUNSPECIFIEDorcid.org/0000-0002-5092-6798UNSPECIFIED
Haessler, TabeaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Bungard, OliverUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Al-Issa, AhmadUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-435953
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098297
Journal or Publication Title: PLoS One
Volume: 9
Number: 6
Date: 2014
Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Place of Publication: SAN FRANCISCO
ISSN: 1932-6203
Language: English
Faculty: Faculty of Human Sciences
Divisions: Faculty of Human Sciences > Department Psychologie
Subjects: Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
E-COMMERCE; IMPACT; COOPERATION; ATTENTION; COGNITION; EMOTION; GENDERMultiple languages
Multidisciplinary SciencesMultiple languages
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/43595

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Altmetric

Export

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item