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Linguistic Features Predicting Trustworthiness in the Sharing EconomyMaarten ter Huurne (HU), Jonas Moons (HU) Amber Ronteltap (HU), Rense Corten (UU)
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
The Sharing Economy
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Research Question
Which linguistic features of the profile text of sellers in the sharing economy are predictive of perceived trustworthiness?
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
The case of Shareyourmeal
• Started in 2012• 75,120 users
– 10,364 cooks– 64,756 foodies
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Example Analysis SYM Profile Text
“Ik vind het heerlijk om lekker eten op tafel te zetten voor ons gezin. Wij gebruiken weinig tot geen zout, alleen echte producten (dus geen zakjes, pakjes etc) en meestal vegetarisch. Als het vlees is komt dat van het eiland (De Geskieker) en bij vis en kip letten we goed op dat het 'verantwoord' is. Favoriet: Thaise en Indonesische keuken.”
Articles
Prepositions
Cooking
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Hypotheses
Linguistic feature Examples
Uncertainty reduction (Toma and D'Angelo, 2014)
H1: more words Number of words
Feelings of closeness (Fitzsimmons & Kay, 2004)
H2: words expressing closeness You “je”, “jij”, “u”
Concreteness (Larrimore et al., 2011)
H3: words relating to concreteness ArticlesPrepositions
“de”, “een”, “het”“van”, “op”, “in”
Enthusiasm (Ambady, 2006)
H4: words relating to enthusiasm Positive emotionsExclamation marks
“humor”, “indrukwekkend”!
Expertise (Mayer and Davis, 1999)
H5: words relating to cooking Cooking related words “biologisch”, “bakken”, “ambachtelijk”
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Method• Textual profiles of SYM cooks were rated by actual
SYM buyers
• Perceived trustworthiness scale developed in prestudy– 6 items (7-point Likert scale) (ability, benevolence,
integrity), (based on Mayer and Davis, 1999)
• Online survey– 8,223 invitations sent out– 167 respondents (response percentage = 2%)– 241 profiles judged with ≥ 5 ratings
• Determine linguistic features– LIWC Dutch dictionary 2007 (Pennebaker et al., 2015;
Zijlstra et al., 2004)– Self-developed cooking dictionary
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Analysis Strategy
• Mixed-effects model– Random effects
• Profile• Respondent
– Linguistic features– Control variables
• Age, gender, education, recognition of profiles, disposition to trust
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Results
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Predictive power of the model
• Model explains 30.5% of the variance of trustworthiness scores
• However, profiles with low and high ratings are predicted with more error
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Discussion
• Perceptions of trustworthiness are influenced by linguistic styles
• Psychological constructs that (may) play a role are:– uncertainty reduction– feelings of closeness– level of concreteness– positive emotions– expertise
• Effect of level of concreteness (i.e. articles) does not concur with literature
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
Questions?
• Maarten ter Huurne• [email protected] • @maartenth
Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl
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