Proposing the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) to explain and predict the influence of high and low affect infusion on Web vendor trust

Abstract

Trust is just as essential to online business as it is to offline transactions but can be more difficult to achieve-especially for newer websites with unknown web vendors. Research on web-based trust development explains that web vendor trust can be created by both cognitive and affective (e.g., emotion-based) influences. But under what circumstances will emotion or cognition be more dominate in trust establishment? Theory-based answers to these questions can help online web vendors design better websites that account for unleveraged factors that will increase trust in the web vendor. To this end, we use the Affect Infusion Model and trust transference to propose the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) that explains and predicts how and when cognition, through perceived website performance (PwP), and positive emotion (PEmo) each influence web vendor trust. ATIM explains the underlying causal mechanisms that determine the degree of affect infusion and the subsequent processing strategy that a user adopts when interacting with a new website. Under high-affect infusion, PEmo acts as a mediator between PwP and vendor trust; under low-affect infusion, PwP primarily impacts trust and PEmo is dis-intermediated. We review two distinct, rigorously validated experiments that empirically support ATIM. To further extend the contributions of ATIM, we demonstrate how use of specific contextual features-rooted in theory and that drive one's choice of affect infusion and cognitive processing-can be leveraged into a methodology that we propose to further enhance user-centered design (UCD). We further detail several exciting research opportunities that can leverage ATIM.

The use of the repertory grid technique in online trust research

“…Although the issue of online trust development has been previously raised by many researchers, earlier studies focused either on developing an overall online trust model (Lowry et al, 2014;McKnight et al, 2002;Pennanen, 2009), or examining one of many aspects of online trust -privacy and security (Bart et al, 2005;McCole et al, 2010;Tang et al, 2008), web design (Cyr, 2013;Ganguly et al, 2010), and ethical business practices (Kracher and Corritore, 2004;Roman, 2007) , to name a few. The majority of those studies used surveys and simulation commercial web sites.…”

Cognitive‐affective drivers of employees' daily compliance with information security policies: A multilevel, longitudinal study

“…Here, affect occurs prior to, and directs, judgments of costs and benefits as they are conceptualised by RCT, such that, for example, someone in a good mood is more apt than someone in a negative mood to perceive amplified benefits for a particular act. This indirect pathway has been confirmed in decision-making studies (eg, Finucane et al, 2000;Slovic et al, 2004) and in IS contexts involving online reviews (Yin, Bond, & Zhang, 2014), website trust formation (Lowry, Twyman, et al, 2014), and disclosures of personal information (Yu, Hu, & Cheng, 2015). Similarly, in the IS security context, Posey, Bennett, Roberts, and Lowry (2011) found significant relationships between employees' trait negative affectivity, perceived organisational trust (a form of cognitive processing), and computer abuse.…”

“…This indirect pathway has been confirmed in decision-making studies (eg, Finucane et al, 2000;Slovic et al, 2004) and in IS contexts involving online reviews (Yin, Bond, & Zhang, 2014), website trust formation (Lowry, Twyman, et al, 2014), and disclosures of personal information (Yu, Hu, & Cheng, 2015). Affect works indirectly by adjusting the individual's cognitive cost-benefit appraisal.…”

“…The literature has also supported the direct influence of affect in rational decision-making (Forgas, 2008;Lowry, Twyman, et al, 2014;Pham, Cohen, Pracejus, & Hughes, 2001;Yu et al, 2015). Notably, this pathway has yet to be verified in the ISP compliance context, although prior IS security research has suggested that affect has a direct influence on compliance-related behaviour (Baskerville, Park, & Kim, 2014).…”

“…Although affect may seem separate from and perhaps antithetical to the reason-based cognitive processing that characterises rational decision-making (per theories such as RCT and TPB), interdisciplinary research has suggested otherwise (Finucane, Alhakami, Slovic, & Johnson, 2000;Forgas, 2008;Lowry, Twyman, Pickard, Jenkins, & Bui, 2014;Pessoa, 2008). Such research has maintained that any behaviour is, by definition, both cognitive and affective because the cognitive processing of a stimulus cannot operate independently of affective factors.…”