Teams without trust? Investigations in the influence of video-mediated communication on the origin of trust among cooperating persons

Authors: Muhlfelder M.; Klein U.; Simon S.; Luczak H.

Source: Behaviour and Information Technology, Volume 18, Number 5, 1 September 1999 , pp. 349-360(12)

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Abstract:

Based on a model about the origin of trust among persons, who are meeting for the first time, the influence of video-mediated communication on confidence building was tested. Using a 'between-subjects'-design, two groups were compared, one carrying out a cooperative task face-to-face, the other using a video-conferencing system. Three measurements were taken. Measurement 1 registered the effects of anticipation. One group was instructed to get somebody to know faceto-face, the other group should meet their partner by videoconference. Measurement 2 registered the amount of trust the subjects had developed in their partner during the session. Measurement 3 was the analysis of the interpersonal interaction processes during the conversation. The results are that subjects who anticipated a video-conference showed no difference in mean, but a highly reduced variability in their assessment of their counterpart compared to those subjects who anticipated a meeting face-to-face. A similar pattern was observed for measurement 2. However, no systematically meaningful difference in the behavioural categories of measurement 3 could be found. The results are similar to experiments mostly carried out in the 1970s and 1980s, which had focused on comparisons between face-to-face and mediated communication.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 1999-09-01

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