Elite Russian Students’ Internet Strategies: Trust, Persuasion, and Rejection

Abstract

Trust, an essential component of political effectiveness within a country and the international system, always involves risk. Trust introduces benefits such as reducing transactional costs but also carries a risk of self-disclosure. Data from focus groups with 108 upper-level students at three elite Russian universities reveal risk aversion in interpersonal and Internet communication. To detect the prospect of “betrayal” by the other of the expected confidentiality of self-disclosure, they devise tests by which to identify sources to trust or reject. In the real world, as on the Internet, how do risk-averse young elites arrive at interpersonal trust—if they ever do—and how do they navigate the Internet through endless numbers of sites? What criteria do they apply? Do they distinguish between government-generated persuasive-communications sites and others?