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Do I Trust this Stranger ? Generalized Trust and the Governance of Online Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Jérôme Hergueux

    (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Berkman Center for Internet and Society [Harvard University] - Harvard University)

  • Yann Algan

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Yochai Benkler

    (Berkman Center for Internet and Society [Harvard University] - Harvard University)

  • Mayo Fuster-Morell

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Online peer production communities such as Wikipedia typically rely on a distinct class of users, called administrators, to enforce cooperation when good faith collaboration fails. Assessing one's intentions is a complex task, however, especially when operating under time-pressure with a limited number of (costly to collect) cues. In such situations, individuals typically rely on simplifying heuristics to make decisions, at the cost of precision. In this paper, we hypothesize that administrators' community governance policy might be influenced by general trust attitudes acquired mostly out of the Wikipedia context. We use a decontextualized online experiment to elicit levels of trust in strangers in a sample of 58 English Wikipedia administrators. We show that low-trusting admins exercise their policing rights significantly more (e.g., block about 81% more users than high trusting types on average). We conclude that efficiency gains might be reaped from the further development of tools aimed at inferring users' intentions from digital trace data.

Suggested Citation

  • Jérôme Hergueux & Yann Algan & Yochai Benkler & Mayo Fuster-Morell, 2021. "Do I Trust this Stranger ? Generalized Trust and the Governance of Online Communities," Post-Print hal-03588745, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03588745
    DOI: 10.1145/3442442.3452338
    as

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