Nonverbal content and swift trust: An experiment on digital communication

Zakaria Babutsidze (1) , Nobuyuki Hanaki (2) , Adam Zylbersztejn (3)

1 SKEMA Business School
2 Osaka University [Osaka]
3 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne

We experimentally study the effect of the mode of digital communication on the emergence of swift trust in a principal-agent relationship. We consider three modes of communication that differ in the capacity to transmit nonverbal content: plain text, audio, and video. Communication is pre-play, one-way, and unrestricted, but its verbal content is homogenized across treatments. Overall, both audio and video messages have a positive (and similar) effect on trust as compared to plain text; however, the magnitude of these effects depends on the verbal content of agent's message (promise to act trustworthily vs. no such promise). In all conditions, we observe a positive e ect of the agent's promise on the principal's trust. We also report that trust in female principals is sensitive to the availability of nonverbal cues about interaction partners.

Mots clés: Digital communication; Trust; Hidden action; Nonverbal content; Principal-agent relationship; Promises

Domaines: Economies et finances

Zakaria Babutsidze, Nobuyuki Hanaki, Adam Zylbersztejn. Nonverbal content and swift trust: An experiment on digital communication. 2020. ⟨halshs-02483343⟩