Trust Repair Research Articles

Making a human's trust repair for an agent in a series of tasks through the agent's empathic behavior

As AI technology develops, trust in agents (including robot, AI and anthropomorphic agent) is becoming more important for more AI applications in human society. Possible ways to improve the trust relationship include empathy, success-failure series, and capability (performance). Appropriate trust is less likely to cause deviations between actual and ideal performance. In this study, we focus on the agent's empathic behavior and success-failure series to increase trust in agents. We experimentally examine the effect of empathic behavior from agent to person on changes in trust over time. The experiment was conducted with a two-factor mixed design: empathic behavior (available, not available) and success-failure series (phase 1 to phase 5). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted using data from 200 participants. The results showed an interaction between the empathic behavior factor and the success-failure series factor, with trust in the agent repairing when empathic behavior was present. This result supports our hypothesis. This study shows that designing agents to be empathic behavior is an important factor for trust and helps humans build appropriate trust relationships with agents.

The Impact of Cybersecurity Attacks on Human Trust in Autonomous Vehicle Operations.

This study examines the extent to which cybersecurity attacks on autonomous vehicles (AVs) affect human trust dynamics and driver behavior. Human trust is critical for the adoption and continued use of AVs. A pressing concern in this context is the persistent threat of cyberattacks, which pose a formidable threat to the secure operations of AVs and consequently, human trust. A driving simulator experiment was conducted with 40 participants who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (1) Experience and Feedback and (2) Experience-Only. All participants experienced three drives: Baseline, Attack, and Post-Attack Drive. The Attack Drive prevented participants from properly operating the vehicle in multiple incidences. Only the "Experience and Feedback" group received a security update in the Post-Attack drive, which was related to the mitigation of the vehicle's vulnerability. Trust and foot positions were recorded for each drive. Findings suggest that attacks on AVs significantly degrade human trust, and remains degraded even after an error-less drive. Providing an update about the mitigation of the vulnerability did not significantly affect trust repair. Trust toward AVs should be analyzed as an emergent and dynamic construct that requires autonomous systems capable of calibrating trust after malicious attacks through appropriate experience and interaction design. The results of this study can be applied when building driver and situation-adaptive AI systems within AVs.

Trust Repair in Politically Polarized Workplaces

Trust Repair in Politically Polarized Workplaces

Behavioral and Neural Evidence on Consumer Responses to Trust Repair Strategies for Service Failures

Behavioral and Neural Evidence on Consumer Responses to Trust Repair Strategies for Service Failures

The Immunization Effect of Internal Control System Transparency following a Supplier’s Violation of Buyer Trust

ABSTRACT In this study, we show that a supplier’s internal controls (ICs) that lead to either falling short of or to exceeding buyer expectations play an important role in the trust a buyer has in its supplier. In a 12-round repeated trust game, we examine the impact of supplier ICs and the transparency of those ICs to the buyer on buyer trusting behavior across three phases of the buyer-supplier relationship: (1) trust formation, (2) trust violation, and (3) trust repair. We find that, although a supplier’s trust violation reduces buyer trusting behavior, the least amount of damage to trusting behavior occurs for suppliers whose ICs led to supplier actions that fell marginally short of buyer expectations before the violation and when the IC was transparent to the buyer. We refer to this as the IC transparency “immunization effect.” We show that suppliers can benefit from making IC choices known to partners. Data Availability: Contact the authors. JEL Classifications: C91; D91; M41.

Towards a framework for repairing stakeholder trust in entrepreneurial small businesses in times of macro-level crises

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand how managers in entrepreneurial small businesses (ESBs) deal with exogenous (macro) crises, particularly in relation to the breakdown of intra- and inter-stakeholder trust.Design/methodology/approach Utilising a qualitative approach, we draw lessons from Greek ESBs greatly affected by the 2008–2019 economic and 2020–2022 health crises. Based on 54 in-depth, longitudinal investigations of four ESBs at three time points, this research offers insights on overcoming organisation-stakeholder trust breakdowns that emerg due to crises.Findings The findings suggest that macro-level crises undermined the foundations of trust-based relationships, creating a trust gap between organisations and their stakeholders and threatening ESBs’ business practices. Our framework suggests that ESBs repair trust relationships, both intra- and inter-organisational, through sense-making of trust breakdown, implementing trust-repair strategies, and then maintaining trust in those stakeholder relationships through challenging crisis periods.Practical implications Practitioners can use the suggested framework in relation to overcoming intra- and inter-stakeholder trust breakdowns during macro-level crises.Originality/value The paper offers a new framework that can aid entrepreneurs and managers in making sense of repairing and maintaining trust in stakeholder relationships during turbulent times.

The impact of green brand trust repair strategies on trust repair after greenwashing: From a brand legitimacy perspective

AbstractAn increasingly worrying trend is enterprises undertaking greenwashing rather than producing actual green products. When such greenwashing behaviours are exposed, green brand trust between enterprises and stakeholders may be damaged, resulting in stakeholders becoming suspicious of these supposedly green brands. Then, enterprises need to adopt several trust repair strategies to repair the damaged green brand trust. We investigated green brand trust repair from a green brand legitimacy perspective and found the following: (1) higher green brand legitimacy suggests the use of considered informational, emotional and corrective repair strategies. (2) Meanwhile, lower green brand legitimacy requires the use of timely informational, emotional and corrective repair strategies. Using the correct set of repair strategies may provide practical and effective approaches for enterprises to repair their brand trust.

More trust in central government during the COVID-19 pandemic? Citizens’ emotional reactions, government performance, and trust in governments

In the COVID-19 crisis, the spectrum of emotional responses among citizens, encompassing both positive and negative reactions, holds the potential to significantly sway public trust in the government. However, the impact of government performance on the interplay between citizen' emotional reactions and trust in the government is not well understood. Drawing upon the trust repair framework, we analyze data from China gathered during the pandemic to investigate the moderating and reparative functions of government performance. The results showed that: Government trust increases as positive emotions increase and negative emotions diminish. Government performance positively moderates the relationship between the emotional reactions of citizens and government trust. Citizens’ trust in the government during the pandemic showed a “strong central, weak local” pattern. Additionally, local government performance exhibits a more pronounced restorative effect compared to the central government. Policy implications are proposed to assist policymakers in enhancing public trust in the government.

Performance gap and the timing of corporate social responsibility disclosure‐A trust repair perspective

AbstractBased on the theory of firm behavior, we explain the voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure behavior of firms from the perspective of trust repair and regard the process of firms' response to the CSR institution as an important way to trust repair for firms' management. We adopt an event history approach with a sample of Chinese firms listed on the A‐share market from 2008 to 2020 and find that faster engagement in CSR disclosure is one of the important trust repair methods for management when firms face performance gaps, and performance gaps positively incentivize firms to voluntarily engage in CSR disclosure. In addition, managers consider the total costs, risks, and benefits of different trust repair methods, there is a substitution effect between different trust repair methods, and the disclosure of internal audit reports and philanthropic donations negatively moderates the relationship between performance gap and CSR disclosure. Our study has important implications for understanding how firm performance affects CSR strategic decisions.

Spotlight on a complex crisis spillover: A multi-organisational perspective on rebuilding trust and reducing distrust in the Australian banking industry

Recent crisis spillover research expands our understanding of the effects of crisis spillover on reputation, legitimacy, consumer attitudes and behaviours, as well as how organisations can respond to these types of crisis spillover events. However, there remains scant exploration of the impact of crisis spillover on trust and limited if any consideration of distrust as a separate and distinct concept from trust. In a crisis, trust is an important relationship outcome, and the present lack of empirical understanding of it in crisis spillover can limit future research and practice. Consequently, this study’s examination of message strategies that address both trust and distrust concerns, and in turn repair these key relational concepts, can address the current void in public relations theory. In addition, the research record provides limited insights into the strategies employed by multiple organisations with varied responsibility for crisis spillovers. To address these gaps in our understanding about complex crisis spillover, this study adopts associative network theory and extends its application via a case study approach focussing on the Australian banking industry. The findings contribute new knowledge to the crisis communication, trust repair and crisis spillover literature.

Reckoning with uncertainty to repair trust.

Reckoning with uncertainty to repair trust.

The Effect of Distrust Regulation and Trustworthiness Demonstration on Trust Repair in Responding to Online Negative Reviews

This paper explores how trust can be repaired after receiving online negative reviews. In this study, trust repair strategies are classified into six categories, and their effects on benevolence, ability, and integrity are examined. A predominant reliance is discerned on trustworthiness demonstration for affective repair strategies within online negative review responses, showcasing a noteworthy efficacy in reinstating trust across the dimensions of benevolence, integrity, and ability. Through a systematic analysis of these strategies, this paper not only uncovers the intricate interplay between responses and their consequential impacts on three dimensions of trust but also provides valuable comprehension of the multifaceted dynamics inherent in trust repair. By offering a refined understanding of the strategies involved in repairing trust, this research contributes actionable insights with theoretical insights into trust repair in digital business communication and practical implications for individuals and organizations grappling with the intricacies of navigating challenging online negative reviews.

Resetting relationship trajectories: A reconceptualization of the relationship repair process

SummaryNegative events within and outside of work can disrupt coworkers' relationships, triggering a re‐evaluation of relationship quality. The subjective experience of these events – which we term relationship threats – harms relationships, resulting in long‐lasting negative interpersonal and organizational consequences. Coworkers' responses to a relationship threat determine whether relationships are repaired or whether the threat leads to a loss of commitment, lowered satisfaction, and increased negative affect. Because of the critical role that relationships play in organizational life, it is vital that we have a comprehensive understanding of the repair process. To date, researchers have focused on one of three repair processes: trust repair. In reconceptualizing relationship repair, we flesh out the remaining two processes: relationship work and sensemaking. Our reconceptualization balances the restorative actions that mitigate in‐the‐moment harm with those that sustain these benefits over time. We expand our understanding of relationship repair by highlighting the role that narrative foundations play in determining a relationships' vulnerabilities and determining effective repair processes. We highlight the importance of considering relationship threats as events embedded within a relationship's history; identify narrative foundations as a bridging mechanism between disrupted relationships and their repair; and expand our conceptualization of the processes that repair relationships.

Negotiating trust through COVID-19 press briefings

Abstract Drawing from televised COVID-19 press briefings, this study explicates how the interplay between verbal and visual resources help policy makers restore public trust following organization-level failures by neutralizing unfavorable discourses that threaten the public’s perceptions of their competence, integrity and benevolence and by emphasizing positive aspects associated with these factors. The findings reveal that these mediated multimodal speeches not only prioritize the political interests of the government by apportioning blame for the surveillance failures, while aggrandizing their ad hoc responses without addressing the causes. This trust repair practice serves to frame the pandemic – initially as an external biosecurity threat and subsequently as a natural and expectable characteristic of an infectious disease that can be handled – hinging largely on the creation of “us-them,” which undermines equitable public health objectives and transmission mitigation in the long run.

A Study on the Influence of Users’ Privacy Literacy and Trust Repair Strategies on the Effectiveness of Trust Repair after Social Media Privacy Invasion

A Study on the Influence of Users’ Privacy Literacy and Trust Repair Strategies on the Effectiveness of Trust Repair after Social Media Privacy Invasion

Repairing public trust through communication in health crises: a systematic review of the literature

ABSTRACT Public trust repair is a particularly important issue in public administration during public crises. Taking health crises as the context and trust repair as a lens, we systematically reviewed existing research to provide comprehensive insights into how public trust can be rebuilt through communication. From this, we identified five categories of trust-repairing communication strategies and integrated a framework by discussing the communication elements those strategies involved. Moreover, we conducted a critical analysis of how these communication strategies help build trust through the six trust-repair mechanisms put forward by Bachmann, Gillespie, and Priem (2015).

The “replication crisis” and trust in psychological science: How reforms shape public trust in psychology

Failed replications can jeopardize public trust in psychological science and recent findings cast doubt on the idea that self-corrections and reforms can rebuild this trust. These findings are in contrast to trust repair research that proposes changes in transparency, norms, and policies as trust repair mechanisms. This raises the question of whether the used experimental material is one reason behind these unexpected findings. Previous studies used short texts that may give too little information on the replication crisis and initiated reforms in the field. In a pre-registered experiment (N = 390), we, therefore, tested whether comprehensive information about the replication crisis and reforms increases public trust in psychology, compared to a control condition that only informs about the replication crisis. To give comprehensive information, we created an animated video for each experimental condition. After watching the video, participants indicated their trust in researchers, trust in past research findings, and trust in current research findings. As expected and in line with trust repair research, information about reforms increased trust in researchers and in current (vs. past) research, compared with information about the replication crisis and its causes only. We discuss the generalizability of our results and implications for communicating the replication crisis to the public.

Confluent trust, accountability, procedural justice, British credit unions and regulatory reform after the global financial crisis

PurposeThe relationship between trust, accountability and procedural justice is studied via research into British credit unions (CUs) following regulatory reform to remedy problems exposed by the 2007–2008 global financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachInterviews at 13 case studies of different types and sizes of credit unions in Glasgow, Scotland, are examined using template analysis and abductive theorizing to understand the effects of disproportionate reforms on small credit unions.FindingsSmaller credit unions found three regulatory changes – namely dual regulators, increased minimum reserves and introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime – excessive. Excessive change generated distrust in regulators. Regulators' insufficient attention to procedural justice contributed to this distrust.Originality/valueLinkage of multidimensional confluent trust to a multilevel system of accountability provides an original way of understanding how indiscriminate attempts at trust repair damage some elements of trust in formal regulatory systems. Recognition of the need for procedural justice to enable smaller credit unions to articulate their extant checks and potential exemption from formal regulations provides another valuable contribution. The explanation of the abductive logic employed is also original.

The Effects of Individual Differences in Working Memory on Trust Recovery

While trust repair is an active area of inquiry (i.e., systems that proactively repair users’ trust in itself, De Visser, Pak, and Shaw 2018), most technology does not have the ability to initiate trust repair. Thus, it is crucial to examine how unaided trust recovery occurs and the factors that could influence it. Prior research has highlighted the potential importance of individual difference factors such as working memory capacity (e.g., Rovira, Pak, McLaughlin, 2017). Previous research also suggests operators’ trust on automation recovers naturally without trust repair strategies (e.g., Lee and Moray, 1992; Mishler and Chen, 2023). However, the specific dynamics of unaided trust recovery and how they are influenced by individual differences are unknown. There are theoretical and practical reasons why this topic is important. Theoretically, it is important to know why some people show trust recovery (i.e., trust recovery naturally, over time), but not others, as such information can inform theories of human-machine trust. Practically, a lot of technologies do not have a trust repairing system to rebuild users’ trust after errors occur; information gained in this study may have direct implications for redesigning systems to aid trust recovery (without using trust repair). The current study has two goals; the first is to understand how trust recovers naturally (unaided). The second goal is to specifically examine how working memory is related to the process of unaided trust recovery. This study will use a computer-based automation task to examine participants’ trust level at three different time points (i.e., before, during, and after automation failures). A final exploratory role of this study will be to examine the role of attention control on trust dynamics. The current study will shed light on individual differences in unaided trust recovery and potential causes.

Promises and Trust Repair in UGVs

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are autonomous robots capable of performing tasks through self- navigation and decision-making. They have the potential to replace humans in dangerous driving scenarios. However, UGVs must be viewed as trustworthy to be accepted, and like any automation, they can make mistakes that decrease human trust in them. Trust repair strategies can mitigate the consequences of trust violations, but they are not always effective. To better understand their effectiveness on UGVs, we designed a between-subjects study examining promises on a UGV’s trustworthiness. Preliminary results showed that promises had a marginal impact on overall trustworthiness but were influential in repairing benevolence but not ability or integrity. These findings have implications for the design of UGV’s and trust repair theory.