title: Cultures of trust: effects of avatar faces and reputation scores on German and Arab players in an online trust-game.
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.
authors.affiliation: Communication and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bente
authors.affiliation: Communication and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dratsch
authors.affiliation: Social and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaspar
authors.affiliation: Communication and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Tabea
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Häβler
authors.affiliation: Communication and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bungard
authors.affiliation: Department of English, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Issa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018912:Arabs; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D061108:Social Media; D035502:Trust; D014479:United Arab Emirates; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult