{"id":8538,"date":"2016-12-20T20:35:05","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T20:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=8538"},"modified":"2016-12-26T20:39:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T20:39:00","slug":"why-people-trust-sharing-economy-strangers-more-than-their-colleagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-people-trust-sharing-economy-strangers-more-than-their-colleagues\/","title":{"rendered":"Why people trust sharing economy strangers more than their colleagues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mareike M\u00f6hlmann<\/a>, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Trust is a crucial element in any relationship, not least when financial transactions are taking place. The rise of sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and Uber \u2013 where you pay a stranger for a service \u2013 are especially dependent on trust. Are they who they say they are? Will they deliver the service that they\u2019ve promised?<\/p>\n

With the use of some key digital features, trust is being built between people that have never met each other. In fact, research I\u2019ve carried out shows that, when they are designed well, sharing economy services can build greater trust between strangers than you\u2019d expect between colleagues.<\/p>\n

These were the findings of recent research into people that use the ride-sharing platform BlaBlaCar. The service is generally used for city-to-city travel across the world. It connects drivers and people who need a ride, bringing hitchhiking into the digital age.<\/p>\n

The study<\/a> is co-authored with Arun Sundarajan, a professor at New York University, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Mazzella, BlaBlaCar\u2019s CEO, and Verena Butt D\u2019Espous, BlaBlaCar\u2019s head of communications. We conducted a survey of 18,289 members of BlaBlaCar across 11 countries in Europe. We found that 88% of respondents highly trusted a member with a full digital profile. <\/p>\n

Surprisingly, this is higher than people\u2019s trust levels in colleagues or neighbours. Indeed, using the same measures, only 58% of respondents said they would highly trust a colleague and 42% would highly trust a neighbour. In fact, when it came to trusting fully-profiled strangers on this ride-sharing site, levels were nearly as high as trust in family members (94% indicate high trust) or friends (92% indicate high trust).<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Sharing economy users trust whose car they\u2019re getting into.<\/span>
\n shutterstock.com<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This trust in strangers hinges on how they present themselves online. BlaBlaCar\u2019s recipe to create trust is a combination of features. Among others, these include short bios of who you are, as well as the possibility to declare personal information like your phone number and e-mail address on your online profile. And profiles are also often connected to members\u2019 other online profiles such as Facebook or LinkedIn. <\/p>\n

Keys to success<\/h2>\n

Another way that trust is built in the sharing economy is by strengthening users\u2019 trust in the platform in general. If they trust the company behind it, or the \u201cbrand\u201d, this will spill over onto other users being active on the platform.<\/p>\n

This is something I\u2019ve found when researching Airbnb<\/a> in a project I\u2019m currently working on. In a recent survey of 232 users of the accommodation sharing platform, I tested several of their trust-building features and how they affect trust in these two entities: the platform as well as those using the platform. <\/p>\n

One is reliable insurance cover: Airbnb insurance cover (up to US$1m) automatically kicks in with each transaction. Insurance cover seems extremely relevant. Renting out your apartment, often including all your personal belongings, to a stranger seems extremely risky. But insurance cover provides users with the feeling that they are prepared for any contingency. <\/p>\n

Another important feature is the review process \u2013 where both hosts and guests rate each other. This is similar to many other website marketplaces we know, such as eBay. The difference with Airbnb, however, is that the platform makes sure that reviews are only publicly revealed after both parties have submitted them. This stops users from reviewing each other positively only because they fear being penalised for a negative review (by receiving a negative review themselves). Reviews become more honest and reliable.<\/p>\n

The platform also lists many rooms from all around the world. This has a network effect \u2013 because so many other people are using the service and from all over the world, it must be safe to use. You are aware of this when you\u2019re on the platform \u2013 and it helps build trust. <\/p>\n

With ever-increasing numbers of people using the internet, sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and BlaBlaCar are becoming the norm. The ability of these newcomers to survive hinges on their ability to ensure trust between their service providers and users. Digitally designing their sites to build this trust between strangers is therefore incredibly important.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Mareike M\u00f6hlmann<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Information Systems & Management Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mareike M\u00f6hlmann, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick Trust is a crucial element in any relationship, not least when financial transactions are taking place. The rise of sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and Uber \u2013 where you pay a stranger for a service \u2013 are especially dependent on trust. Are they who they say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":8539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[277],"tags":[1283,1209,359,1748,506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8540,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions\/8540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}