Developing Trust on the Internet
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Victoria McGeer
Abstract
Does the Internet provide an environment in which rational individuals can initiate and maintain relationships of interpersonal trust? This paper argues that it does. It begins by examining distinctive challenges facing would-be trusters on the net, concluding that, however distinctive, such challenges are not unique to the Internet, so cannot be cited as grounds for disparaging the rationality of Internet trust. Nevertheless, these challenges point up the importance of developing mature capacities for trust, since immature trusters are particularly vulnerable to the liabilities of Internet trust. This suggests that Internet trust can only be rational for those who have developed mature capacities for trust. But that suggestion ignores how trust on the Internet may also facilitate the development of such capacities.
© 2004 by Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart
Articles in the same Issue
- Community and Human Social Nature Contemporary Society
- Three Aspects of Interpersonal Trust
- The Social Psychology of Trust with Applications in the Internet
- Cooperation and Community an the Internet: Past Issues and Present Perspectives for Theoretical-Empirical Internet Research
- Developing Trust on the Internet
- Trust, Reliance and the Internet
- Internet Capital
- Esteem, ldentifiability and the Internet
- Reputation and Internet Auctions: eBay and Beyond
- Trust among Internet Traders
- The Evolution of Trust(worthiness) in the Net
- The Emergence of Trust Networks under Uncertainty – Implications for Internet Interactions
- Local Virtuality in a High-Tech Networked Organization
- How May Virtual Communication Shape Cooperation in a Work Team?
- Trust and Community in Open Source Software Production
- Crime, Law and the Internet
Articles in the same Issue
- Community and Human Social Nature Contemporary Society
- Three Aspects of Interpersonal Trust
- The Social Psychology of Trust with Applications in the Internet
- Cooperation and Community an the Internet: Past Issues and Present Perspectives for Theoretical-Empirical Internet Research
- Developing Trust on the Internet
- Trust, Reliance and the Internet
- Internet Capital
- Esteem, ldentifiability and the Internet
- Reputation and Internet Auctions: eBay and Beyond
- Trust among Internet Traders
- The Evolution of Trust(worthiness) in the Net
- The Emergence of Trust Networks under Uncertainty – Implications for Internet Interactions
- Local Virtuality in a High-Tech Networked Organization
- How May Virtual Communication Shape Cooperation in a Work Team?
- Trust and Community in Open Source Software Production
- Crime, Law and the Internet
