Trust Information Research Articles

When the messenger affects the message: Trustworthiness in the context of COVID vaccination.

When the messenger affects the message: Trustworthiness in the context of COVID vaccination.

Blockchain based holistic trust management protocol for ubiquitous and pervasive IoT network

ABSTRACT The new emerging blockchain (BC) technology integrated with the IoT ecosystem revolutionised the IoT world. Classic BC with bitcoin method was realised as very expensive operations difficult to adopt for smart IoT applications; therefore, we integrated IoT network with overlay BC with distributed ledger capability to provide a secure trust management system, which can address access control issues of devices on resources. Further, the R-LEACH protocol followed by the same group urges additional cluster head requirement to establish trust between nodes is not considered in our proposed approach. The main advantage of this method is utilising ledgers for holding the trust and IoT information ensuring tamper-proof data. The miners of blockchain layer perform the trust value calculations based on trust evidence and achieved fast trust convergence, accuracy, and resilience against adversary attacks. Our proposed approach enhances privacy, reliability, availability, and more importantly, sharing and storage of trust information and also followed the consensus mechanism Proof-of-Authority (PoA) to approve the synthesis trust value of related transactions by the pre-authenticated miners/validators, from which we can take more accurate trust-based decisions. Performance results of our blockchain-based trust management approach outperformed literature review trust mechanisms for protecting trust data manipulation against the malicious nodes.

Testicular pain and youtube™: are uploaded videos a reliable source to get information?

Several previous studies on YouTube™ on urological field have already been published. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the quality information of YouTubeTM videos on testicular pain. Using Google Trends tool, the frequency of worldwide YouTubeTM and Google Search on testicular pain was examined from 2010 to 2020. The keywords "testicular pain", "testicular ache" and "scrotal pain" were used on the YouTube platform and the first 100 YouTubeTM videos were analyzed for each one. The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) for Audiovisual (A/V) Materials, the DISCERN score and Misinformation tool were used to assess video quality. According to YouTube™ Search the mean relative frequency search for "testicular pain" ranged from 10.5 to 30.0%. According to GoogleTM Search it ranged from 73.7 to 91.0%, Of all 300 videos, 117 were eligible for the analysis. The median number of views, thumbs-up and thumbs-down was respectively: 47060 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6297.0-144188.0), 289 (IQR = 40-912) and 19 (IQR = 4-53). Of all videos, 68.4% and 31.6% were produced respectively by Medical Doctors and Other. The median PEMAT Actionability and Understandability scores were 66.7% and 66.7%, respectively. The median DISCERN score ranged from 1 to 5, with an overall median score of 3, defined from question 16. The median misinformation score ranged from 2 to 5. In conclusion, an increased interest on testicular pain was recorded on both YouTubeTM and Google search during the last decade. However, according to the quality assessment tools used, YouTube™ users cannot get trustful and exhaustive information on testicular pain. Therefore, authors with/without medical background should improve the quality of information on YouTube™ videos.

Trust in Power among Modern Russian youth: the role of Values and ethnic identity

Leading Russian and foreign scientists have repeatedly noted a decrease in public confidence in the government and most political institutions. The loss of citizens' trust in the government has also affected Russia. The purpose of the presented research is to study the phenomenon of political trust in the aspect of value orientations and ethnic identity among modern Russian youth. The study conducted diagnostics of the younger generation of Russians living in different regions of the Russian Federation, aged 18 to 34 years. The study sample included representatives of the cities of the Russian Federation: Perm, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and rural areas. The following methods were used in the empirical study: the scale of political trust, the methodology of J. Finney, measuring the severity of ethnic identity and Schwartz's methodology for determining the value structure. The level of trust in the authorities is at a fairly low level, which indicates a tendency to social cynicism rather than political trust. The ethnicity of modern youth is also at a fairly low level. The results of the regression analysis demonstrated that ethnic identity has an impact on the overall level of trust in the authorities. Values such as "Reputation", "Universalism: tolerance" and "Benevolence: a sense of duty" have the strongest influence on trust in the authorities. The value of material goods negatively affects the formation of trust in the authorities. The scientific significance lies in the fact that for the first time the problem of the formation of political trust in the aspect of personal values and ethnic identity was studied.The practical significance lies in the fact that the results of this study can serve as a basis for the development of recommendations in the field of building political trust among Russian youth.

Characterizing Trust and Resilience in Distributed Consensus for Cyberphysical Systems

This work considers the problem of resilient consensus, where stochastic values of trust between agents are available. Specifically, we derive a unified mathematical framework to characterize convergence, deviation of the consensus from the true consensus value, and expected convergence rate, when there exists additional information of trust between agents. We show that under certain conditions on the stochastic trust values and consensus protocol: First, almost sure convergence to a common limit value is possible even when malicious agents constitute more than half of the network connectivity; second, the deviation of the converged limit, from the case where there is no attack, i.e., the true consensus value, can be bounded with probability that approaches 1 exponentially; and third correct classification of malicious and legitimate agents can be attained in finite time almost surely. Furthermore, the expected convergence rate decays exponentially as a function of the quality of the trust observations between agents.

The model of challenges to trust in the modern Russian Federation

The subject of the study is challenges to trust. The purpose of this article is to form a key base of challenges to trust (TOP-10) in Russia, to assess their creative and destructive beginnings and to build on this basis a predictive-probabilistic model of their manifestation. The methodological basis of the study was a system-integrated approach, which allowed to reveal the problems of relationships in the "challenge-trust" chain, to identify the challenges affecting the long-term dynamics of the level of trust in Russia, which was provided by the use of STEEPV analysis, involving the consideration of social (S), technological (T), economic (E), environmental (E), political (P) and value (V) aspects. Content analysis and comparative analysis of a wide range of theoretical and empirical works on trust and challenges of our time made it possible to form a common base of challenges to trust in Russia. The basis for constructing a predictive-probabilistic model is the method of assigning a numerical percentage value to a call in order to create a common probabilistic platform for comparison. The construction methodology assumed the allocation of expert knowledge and their subsequent synthesis on the basis of an interactive procedure for expressing individual judgments of specialists. В The scientific results of the work were: a key database of trust challenges in the Russian Federation, a predictive-probabilistic model of trust challenges in Russia, which is built in the format of cross-references revealing the dichotomous characteristics of calls and their classification. The fundamental scientific conclusion was the postulate that in the conditions of modern challenges, with the existing initial level of trust, the mechanisms of trust formation functioning in the state are becoming increasingly important, the main task of which is to create a creative response that will dampen the impact of the challenge on trust, and in certain cases, increase the level of trust based on the use of positive (creative) characteristics a call.

Efficient Trustworthiness Management for Malicious User Detection in Big Data Collection

Data collection in big data is an effective way to aggregate information that the collector is interested in. However, there is no assurance for the data that the users provide. Since collector does not have the ability to check the authenticity of every piece of information, the trustworthiness of users participated in the collection become important. In this paper, we design an efficient approach to calculate users’ trustworthiness in data collection for big data context. We divide the trustworthiness into familiarity trustworthiness and similarity trustworthiness, and study the influences of user actions on trustworthiness. To prevent malicious users from raising their trustworthiness and providing false information that may mislead final results, we also design a security queue to record users’ historical trust information, so that we can detect malicious users with high accuracy. Simulation results show that our model can sensitively resist the malicious actions of users.

The prevalence and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the age of infodemic

ABSTRACT Background Addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Communication and media environments are potential drivers of vaccine hesitancy. It is worthwhile to examine the relationship between social media use and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Objective This study aims to understand the prevalence and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Methods Questionnaires were administered to 463 participants in mainland China. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression models were utilized to examine the prevalence and influencing factors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in China, as well as the relationship between social media use, media trust, health information literacy, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Results Lack of confidence and risk were identified as factors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Age, occupation status and income levels were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. In addition, we observed that frequency of social media use, diversity of social media use, media trust and health information literacy were significantly correlated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Conclusion Increased frequency and diversity of social media use, media trust and health information literacy can mitigate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and promote COVID-19 vaccination.

Trust of the Population and Elites in Power: Theoretical and Applied Aspects

The subject of this research is theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of studying and analysing the level of trust of citizens and elites of modern Russia in power. In the article, the authors used such methods and approaches as systemic and structural-functional approaches to analyse external and internal factors affecting the confidence of the country’s population and elites in public administration, a situational approach to study the influence of spatial-temporal factors on the formation and development of trust among the population and elites in power structures. The paper analyses the theoretical and methodological aspects of studying the phenomenon of trust of citizens and elites to power in modern Russia. The problem of studying the formation and development of trust in power among the population of the country and the elites is quite relevant, especially in the context of the implementation of election campaigns, the material proposed in the article allows us to identify the necessary trajectories of the study of this phenomenon.

Exploring Trust Formation and Antecedents in Social Commerce.

With the rapid increase in social media users and netizens globally, the proclivity for online shopping using social commerce (SC) platforms cannot be ignored. Trust has been recognised as a constant challenge in the context of social commerce due to the lack of face-to-face interaction. Therefore, there is a dire need to enhance the trust of consumers in social commerce platforms. However, the research in the formation of trust in social commerce and antecedents remains limited. In addition, the existing SC research failed to include its multidimensional view to investigate user behaviour. This study fills this gap and extends existing knowledge by developing a model exploring the antecedents of trust in social commerce. Drawing upon the social-technical theory and trust lens, this study attempts to identify the role of (i) structural assurance (SA) and SC platforms as an institution-based trust, (ii) trust in sellers and trust in SC community as trusting beliefs, and (iii) trust in online payment as a cognitive trust on trust and intention of the social commerce. This research employs a dataset (n = 406) collected using an online survey; the research subjects were recruited from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This study uses the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to analyse the data and to confirm the hypothesis proposed in the research model. The empirical findings show that trust in social commerce influences behavioural intention. In addition, trust in the SC platform, the SC community, and online payment influence the trust in SC. Likewise, SA and trust in the SC platform have a significant relationship with trust in sellers, the SC community, and online payment. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical contributions and practical insights to several limitations and suggests directions for future research.

Predicting Students' Social Adjustment and Academic Achievement based on Parenting Attachment Styles

Aim: The purpose of this study was to predict social adjustment and academic achievement based on parental attachment styles in students. Methods: The method of this research was descriptive-correlational. The study population included 18,000 male and female first year high school students in Lorestan province in the academic year of 2014-15, which was conducted on a sample of 364 students (200 girls, 164 boys). Multi-stage cluster sampling method was selected. The California Social Adjustment Questionnaire (Klako et al., 1953) and the Hazen and Shaver Adult Attachment Styles Questionnaire (1897) were used to collect data, and the students' final grade point average was used to assess academic performance. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis (stepwise). Findings: The results of Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a meaningful negative relationship between avoidant attachment style (P=0.001, r=-0.35), anxiety attachment style (P=0.001, r=-0.29) with adaptation. Also, between secure attachment style (P≥0.001, r=0.41), attachment to mother (P≥0.001, r=0.35), attachment to father (P≥0.001, r=0.37) and attachment to friends (P=0.001, r=0.38) has a significant positive relationship with adaptation. Multiple regression results showed 31% of the total variance of students' academic adjustment by avoidant attachment style (β=-0.16), anxiety attachment style (β=-0.14), secure attachment (β=0.23), attachment to mother (β=0.10), attachment to father (β=0.15), and attachment to friends (β=0.09) are explained. Also, 14% of the variance of academic achievement is explained by the style of secure attachment (β=0.17), attachment to father (β=0.10) and attachment to friends (β=0.11). Conclusion: The present study showed that the first emotional bonds between child and mother play a fundamental role in the formation of social trust and the continuation of emotional relationships in the later period of growth, promoting it positively. Thus, with success in this field, social adjustment is achieved.

How to Improve the Cooperation Mechanism of Emergency Rescue and Optimize the Cooperation Strategy in China: A Tripartite Evolutionary Game Model.

To reveal the interaction and influence mechanism between emergency rescue entities, and to explore and optimize a cooperation mechanism of emergency rescue entities, a tripartite evolutionary game model of emergency rescue cooperation based on government rescue teams, social emergency organizations, and government support institutions was constructed. The stability of each game subject’s strategy choice was explored. Simulation analysis was applied to investigate the influence mechanism of key parameters on the evolution of the game subject’s strategy combination. The research results show that government rescue teams, social emergency organizations, and government support institutions have consistent political demands and rescue targets in emergency rescue cooperation. The game subjects are driving forces for each other to choose positive strategies. The game evolution process of the emergency cooperation model shows a “mobilization-coordination” feature. At the same time, the emergency capital stock formed based on trust relationships, information matching, and institutional norms between game subjects can promote the evolution of the game system toward (1,1,1). In addition, for government organizations with limited emergency resources, the average allocation of emergency resources is not the optimal solution for emergency rescue efficiency. However, it is easier to achieve the overall target of emergency rescue cooperation by investing limited emergency resources in key variables that match the on-site situation. On this basis, combined with the practice of emergency rescues in emergencies, countermeasures and solutions are proposed to optimize the mechanism and improve the efficiency of emergency rescue cooperation.

Factors Enhancing Trust in Electronic Communication Among Patients from an Internal Medicine Clinic: Qualitative Results of the RECEPT Study

BackgroundElectronic health records are now the norm in US healthcare. Bidirectional patient portals allow frequent communication between patients and their healthcare team. Many studies have examined the importance of patient engagement and trust between patients and their healthcare team, typically in the context of face-to-face interactions. Little is known about how patient trust and engagement are built or enhanced through electronic communications. COVID-19 provided a unique time in history for this novel exploration.ObjectiveOur objective was to learn how patients experience trust formation through electronic communication (patient messaging and video visits) with their healthcare team.DesignOur research was guided by grounded theory methodology. Qualitative interviews were conducted between February and December 2020 with patients or their caregivers from an internal medicine clinic in Colorado.ParticipantsFifty-one participants were recruited by age group and gender to represent the clinic’s adult ambulatory care demographics. Seven were patients’ caregivers who were purposefully recruited. Average age was 53 with an educated, middle class, and largely white predominance in our eventual sample.ApproachThirty-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted using an interview guide informed by a validated physician-patient trust scale. Interviews were conducted by telephone, recorded via Zoom, and transcribed. Results were analyzed and coded in ATLAS.ti utilizing the constant comparative method, with two coders.Key ResultsPatients experienced enhanced trust in their healthcare team through electronic communications. Interpersonal and system factors contributed to trust formation. Promptness of reply was the most salient factor in trust formation with a majority desiring same day response.ConclusionsPatients now rely on electronic communication with their healthcare team. Opportunities exist to leverage this to improve health outcomes. Important research in expanded demographic groups, along with ambulatory healthcare redesign, will be necessary to optimize benefits of electronic communication with patients and meet patient expectations.

A cloud service recommendation method based on extended multi‐source information fusion

AbstractWith the rapid development of information technology, the problem of “information overload” emerges when users choose cloud services. How to integrate multi‐source information to achieve accurate service recommendation is an urgent problem to be solved by current recommendation systems. This article proposes a cloud service recommendation method based on extended multi‐source information fusion. First, we propose a score prediction based on matrix decomposition and topic matrix, and we fully mine existing explicit data and feedback data, such as user ratings, social trust information, reviews, and user personalized preferences and so on. Second, in order to solve the problems of data sparseness and cold start of the system, we integrate the score, social trust information and review into a comprehensive model through collaborative filtering (CF), and propose a multi‐source information fusion recommendation method. The CF fusion method mainly combines two parts: social matrix decomposition and topic matrix decomposition. Finally, in order to further improve the accuracy and scalability, the implicit feature matrix is integrated into the user rating matrix, and the original CF enhancement based on scoring matrix decomposition is a matrix decomposition method that can learn implicit features. Experimental results show that compared with other recommendation algorithms, the cloud service recommendation method proposed in this article can improve the recommendation accuracy and allow users to choose satisfactory cloud services.

The formation of initial trust by potential passengers of self-driving taxis

ABSTRACT Despite a current level of uncertainty, taxi service companies are incorporating autonomous cars in their services. This study examines factors influencing consumers' initial trust in autonomous taxis to extend trust model research and develop a new model in autonomous taxis. The new model examines the influence of trust base factors and subjective norms on three constructs. It assesses eight trust base factors of cognitive, personality, calculative, and institutional categories. Findings indicate that faith in intelligent machines, calculative cost/benefit perception, perceived societal benefits, organizational situation normality, and technology structural assurance are potential indicators of consumers' trusting beliefs in this context. Data was collected from undergraduate students and future research should test the model with other populations to determine if differences among groups exist. The study makes significant contributions to both theory and practice by extending the initial trust model and examining trusting factors in the context of autonomous taxis.

COVID-19: information access, trust and adherence to health advice among migrants in Norway

BackgroundMigrants in Norway bear a higher burden of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization as compared to non-migrants. The aim of our study was to understand how migrants perceive their own health risk, how they access information regarding the preventive measures, the degree of trust in this information, in the Norwegian authorities and the news media, and migrants’ adherence to authorities’ recommendations regarding the pandemic.MethodsAn online survey was performed between May and July 2020 among 529 Polish, Arabic, Somali, Tamil, and Spanish-speaking migrants in Norway. For each outcome presented in the aims, unweighted and weighted descriptive analyses were performed for all migrants together and for each language group.ResultsSixty-one percent of migrants perceived their health as excellent or very good, with the lowest value (42%) in the Tamil group and the highest among Somalians (85%). The majority of respondents (82%) felt they had received sufficient information. Press conferences from the government, health authorities’ websites, and Norwegian news media were the preferred channels of information for all groups. Most migrants reported a high level of adherence to preventive measures (88%) and trust in Norwegian authorities (79%). However, there were variations among groups regarding the importance of sources of information and level of trust, which was lowest for the Polish group.ConclusionMigrants in Norway reported receiving sufficient information about COVID-19 and high adherence to preventive measures. However, the levels of trust in the information sources, the services and the authorities varied among the groups. Understanding how migrants are dealing with this pandemic is crucial to improve the dissemination of information and trust in the health authorities for the different groups.

Культурные факторы формирования доверия в организации: социологический анализ

The relevance of the study is due to the high competition among organizations, which forces managers to look for new methods of improving the performance. A high level of organizational trust is one of the most significant factors in efficient operation of companies. This explains interest in research on various factors in the formation of trust in organizations. To date, there have been published quite many works devoted to organizational and individual conditions ensuring the formation of organizational trust. Less attention is paid by researchers to cultural prerequisites such as generalized trust, social control, and the values of collectivism and individualism in society. On the basis of a theoretical review, we describe the mechanisms of trust formation through these cultural prerequisites. It was revealed that organizational trust is related to the perception of behavior by others (generalized trust), but is not identical to trust at the behavioral level. Employees can demonstrate a high level of generalized trust, but at the same time show a willingness to be vulnerable to others in joint activities. It was also found that social control in society negatively affects organizational trust as it violates informal ties and does not allow the formation of in-formal norms and rules that are important for trust. Finally, it was found that organizational trust is posi-tively associated with individualism and with a focus on collective activity (team work). The trust of col-lectivists is limited to people with close social ties, while the trust of individualists goes beyond these re-lationships. Thus, the behavioral strategy that acquires a special role is building up a positive reputation of a «good» person, which contributes to the well-being of an individual since it provides him/her with help and support from others. The formulated conclusions indicate the importance of cultural prerequi-sites in the formation of trust in an organization, which should be taken into account in empirical studies. Keywords: organizational trust, trust factors, generalized trust, social control, collectivism, individualism.

Факторы формирования доверия к местной власти в Российской Федерации на современном этапе

Introduction: the population’s trust in the authorities is the basis of socio-political stability and the consolidation of public interests. The involvement of residents in the problems of local communities and the interest in developing the space of their residence form the foundation for trusting interaction between the population and the authorities based on confidence and positive expectations of each other’s actions. Objectives: to assess the level of trust in local authorities, analyze the development of the territorial identity of Russian cities residents and determine its role in the formation of trust. Methods: questionnaire survey of the population in Russian cities. The final sample includes 53 regions of the Russian Federation with 587 respondents. The study was exploratory in nature. Results: the level of trust in local authorities is centered in the range of low and medium scores. The most negative situation with the level of trust is revealed in small towns. Despite the low level of trust, Russian cities residents are characterized by involvement in the local communities’ agenda, actualization of information needs, and interest to the activities of municipal leaders. A high level of the citizens’ territorial identity development has been identified, both in terms of its emotional (a sense of community, empathy for the problems of their native city), and activity (initiative, the desire to improve the local communities life) content. The study confirmed the hypothesis that there exists a relationship between the stability of solidarity values, the development of territorial identity and the formation of trust. Conclusions: the territorial identity of citizens can be considered as a source of trust development, which allows the formation of stable social ties, the readiness for interaction of social actors in local communities. At the same time, the leaders of local self-government bodies can, with maximum efficiency, convert the potential of residents’ solidarity into the development of trust, using such mechanisms as the formation of territorial communities, including digital ones, the consolidation of entrepreneurial, professional and neighborhood interaction networks, self-organization of citizens, event-filled public life, updating information and communication links.

ДОВІРА НАСЕЛЕННЯ ДО ОРГАНІВ ПУБЛІЧНОЇ ВЛАДИ ЯК ЧИННИК КОНСОЛІДАЦІЇ СУЧАСНОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА ТА БЕЗПЕКИ ДЕРЖАВИ

The subject of this study was the theoretical-methodological and applied aspects of studying and analyzing the level of public trust in public authorities as a factor in the consolidation of society and state security. The authors used systemic and structural-functional approaches to analyze external and internal factors that affect the trust of the country’s population in public administration bodies, and a situational approach to study the influence of spatial and temporal factors on the formation and development of public trust in government structures. The problem of studying the formation and development of trust in public bodies among the population is quite urgent, especially in the context of modern structural changes in the country, and the material proposed in the article allows us to identify the necessary trajectories of research into this phenomenon.

ІНТЕРАКТИВНІ СОЦІО-КОМУНІКАЦІЙНІ МОДЕЛІ: ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ВИКОРИСТАННЯ В МІЖНАРОДНИХ ВІДНОСИНАХ, ТУРИЗМІ ТА ГОТЕЛЬНО-РЕСТОРАННІЙ СПРАВІ

This article is devoted to the use of socio-communication models in the fields of international relations, tourism, hotel and restaurant business in the context of the interdisciplinary orientation of classical research. The main trends in the development of socio-communication space as part of the general information space and the Internet, in particular, are summarized. The commonality of the interdisciplinary approach for the study of communication tasks in the field of interaction as a certain interactive model of communication technologies is proved. The peculiarities of the interactive socio-communication model and its expediency of use in international relations, tourism, and hotel and restaurant business as a part of strategic, image, and business communications are established. It is determined that isolated examples in the fields of international relations, tourism, and hotel and restaurant business prove that the use of this interactive model of communication is a promising area for practical activities in these areas and further scientific forecasting, modeling, and study. The model of interactive communication is becoming relevant, based on the formation of trust by reducing the load in the information space, the formation of trusting relationships (the risk of distortion is minimized by implementing real-time communication). Isolated examples in the fields of international relations, tourism and hotel and restaurant business prove that the use of this model is a promising area for practical activities in these areas, as well as for further scientific forecasting, modeling and study of features. Areas of further research are determined by the need to use interdisciplinary methodological and theoretical developments in the field of communications and the practical implementation of certain socio-communication technologies in the fields of international relations, tourism and hotel and restaurant business. Further study of the implementation of interactive models of interaction between participants in communication processes will clarify and improve the effectiveness of the implementation of strategic and business communications in various fields.