Perceptions of Trust Between Online Auction Consumers

Related Work

Trust is about expectations of the future (Shneiderman, 2000). The term ‘trust’ implies a belief in other people’s good intentions; that a person will behave reasonably and do what he or she says (Preece, 2004). However, there is an element of risk in the definition of trust: one can never be sure about the actions of another. As Luhmann (1979) says, if one could, there would not be a need for trust. Because online environments are used by people from different backgrounds, and often anonymously, social interactions can sometimes be risky and unpredictable (Jensen et al., 2002). In online interaction it is more difficult to assess the potential for harm and goodwill of other people, and cues that can be drawn from the environment are essential for the establishment of trust in other people (Friedman et al., 2000).