Is an apology enough? How to resolve trust breakdowns in episodic online interactions

Abstract

This paper addresses what kind of system allows the victim of a trust breakdown to fairly assess an unintentional offender who is also a benevolent member. Two systems were compared: a system that displayed the offender's unblemished reputation score as obtained in previous interactions with other members, and a system that also had a communication channel which displayed the offender's expressed apology and regret over the offence. The findings of this study suggest that the system which also endorses apology, as well as records reputation, allows the victim to recover his/her trust in the unintentional offender. However, trust is repaired only when the offender validates the apology with a reparative action. © 2007 Asimina Vasalou, Astrid Hopfensitz, Jeremy Pitt.