Digital Communication and Swift Trust

Zakaria Babutsidze, Nobuyuki Hanaki and Adam Zylbersztejn ()
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Adam Zylbersztejn: GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: We experimentally study the effect of the mode of digital communication on the emergence of swift trust in a principal-agent relationship. We consider three modes of communication: plain text, audio, and video. Communication is pre-play, one-way, and unrestricted, but its content is homogenized across treatments. Overall, both audio and video messages have a positive (and similar) effect on trust compared to plain text; however, the magnitude of these effects depends on the content of agent's message (promise to act trustworthily vs. no such promise). In all conditions, we observe a positive effect of the agent's promise on the principal's trust. We also find that providing visual cues about the sender promotes trust and helps overcome gender favoritism in females.

Keywords: Digital communication; Promise; Trust; Principal-agent relationship; Hidden action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02050514v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Digital Communication and Swift Trust (2019)
Working Paper: Digital Communication and Swift Trust (2019)
Working Paper: Digital Communication and Swift Trust (2019)
Working Paper: Digital Communication and Swift Trust (2019)
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