This episode was produced by UIC communication student Alexa Licciardello ’15 She interrogates the link between trust and the sharing economy. Prof. William Bielby (UIC) was the guest on the show.
This podcast is a class exercise and it does not represent the views and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago or any of its departments.
Produced: Fall 2015.
Transcript
[MUSIC: InfoNation theme music and intro] Welcome to InfoNation, University of Illinois at Chicago’s very own podcast created by students, for the students. At InfoNation we discover how media, information, and communication are created, governed and used. Produced by upper-level communication students in the Department of Communication, InfoNation brings academic research to help make sense of our increasingly mediated society. We go to the library so that you won’t have to.
[ALEXA LICCIARDELLO] Hello! Thanks for listening to this special episode of Infonation. I am Alexa Licciardello and today we are going to taking about our sharing economy culture and the role of trust with that culture. I went out onto the streets of Chicago and asked some studens, “Would you ever get into a car with a stranger?” Let’s see what they said.
[ANONYMOUS1] Um… no probably not. Not unless it was like a, like a dire situation.
[ANONYMOUS2] No, I don’t think I would get into a car with a stranger. Not unless I’m stranded on the side of the road.. in the desert or something.
[ANONYMOUS3] No, I would never get in a car with a stranger. The only time that I would ever do something like that is if I was really desperate and had no other way of getting home… if I couldn’t a cab, Uber, friend, family, anything like that… that would be the only thing that lead me to getting in a car with someone I don’t know anything about.
[ANONYMOUS4] No, I don’t think I would ever get into a car with a stranger. Unless it was a really big emergency situation where my life was at risk or somebody else’s life.
[AL] So, there seems to be a theme here. No one would willingly trust a stranger unless their life was somehow at risk or they were stranded in the desert.
My question is, how does a sharing economy, or otherwise known as collaborative consumption, thrive in today’s society, when no one is willing to trust strangers?
For those of you who are wondering exactly what a sharing economy is… it’s basically the idea of people sharing resources or goods and services with others. This may be sharing a car, a house, bed, bike or even your time. The sharing economy term emerged in the mid 2000s but this idea of sharing goods has been around through out history. Some of the more common examples of a sharing economy are AirBnB, Snapgoods, DogVacay, Etsy and Uber. Uber is the most interesting contribution to the sharing economy because it sets itself right into the middle of the debate, “would you ever get into the car with a stranger?”
So, how does trust play a role within today’s society and within the sharing economy culture? Why do people trust Uber drivers, when essentially they are strangers?
Let’s start this discussion by asking, what is trust? In a study done by Pscychology researchers at Fort Hays State University, they defined trust in a multiple ways. It can be described as a generalized expectancy, as an enduring attitude or trait and as a transitory situational variable.
This study measured trust in three different levels: Partner Trust, which is trust in specific relationship partners, Network Trust, which is trust in one’s social circle of friends and family, and lastly Global Trust, which is trust in human nature and people-in-general: for example, strangers.
For my purposes, I want to delve more into the idea of Global Trust. It probably isn’t surprising that Global Trust was considered the lowest level of trust simply on its own. The most interesting result that this study yielded was the correlations between Global Trust and current emotions. The researchers stated that they expected Partner Trust would be strongly related to incidents of relationship satisfaction and experience meaning that people trust their partners based on past experience and happiness or unhappiness. However, Global Trust was strongly related to individual trait and emotion measures. This means that Global Trust is dependent on current emotions rather than past emotions.
Another study done by students at Cornell University focused on whether trust is a matter or respect or morality. Or rather, do people trust based on societal norms of respectful behavior or is it more of an individual decision to trust based on a moral code. This study found that trust is more of an individual moral rather than a societal norm. This means that people normally trust others based on their own personal feelings about human nature instead of a feeling of obligation. I want you all to think about why and when you exhibit trust? Have you ever trusted a stranger to watch your bag while you went to the bathroom? Why did you decide to trust this person? It is something interesting to think about.
Now that we have some background knowledge of how trust works within our society, let’s get back to sharing economies. I asked the same students, who would never get into a car with a stranger, “Do you use Uber? If so, why do you trust Uber drivers more than any other stranger?” Here’s what they said.
[ANONYMOUS1] Um… I think it’ s mainly because Uber… I mean the people have background checks when they sign up to drive for Uber. And you.. and when you request an Uber, it shows a picture of them, their name , their license plate number. I can even send it to my parents and they can know exactly who is driving me and where I am through the GPS. So, I feel like it’s more secure then just getting into a car with someone and you have no idea who they are.
[ANONYMOUS2] Yes, I use Uber. But I feel more safe using Uber just because I think that the Uber app would go through a thorough background check on each of the drivers and.. I’ve used Uber for.. a couple years now and I’ve had no…bad experience really. So I just feel more safe versus going with a random stranger.
[ANONYMOUS4] Uh… the reason I trust Uber more than a stranger is because Uber is a company whose job is to… um… connect you with… uh.. a driver. So its like their job and I feel like there’s… um… a lot fo trsut between those professional companies instead of it just being a completely random person off the street because.. uh.. Uber drivers go through background checks and interviews before they’re offered positions so it gives them a lot more trust.
[ANONYMOUS3] Uh, yes I am more likely to use Uber. I feel like I’m more trusting of that cause even if I don’t know the person they have to go through background screenings and ratings and things to make sure that… um… they’re upholding the standards that are required to do something like that. However, I have had a few instances with Uber where you really shouldn’t trust them as much as you are inclined to… so… maybe… we shouldn’t be as trusting… um… just because they go through screening. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a trustworthy ride.
[AL] There were a few things in their responses that caught my attention. One being that a couple of those students based their trust in Uber on past experience. One student saying, “I haven’t had any issues in the past” and another saying “I have had issued with Uber before, so maybe we shouldn’t be as trusting”. Both of these individuals still use Uber whether it is because or in spite of their past experience. This information contradicts some of the research that I previously explained. Other reasons those students trust Uber is because of background checks. In order to work for Uber, drivers have to submit to background checks. According to those Uber users, this adds a level of credibility that other strangers just do not have.
Also, the ratings feature allows people to give feedback to the company and the drivers on their experience and thus makes it more trustworthy. It would be interesting to sit in on a development meeting for sharing economy technology. How do developers decide what features to add to their apps or websites in order for users to trust their credibility? Unfortunately I was not able to do so when making this podcast.
Lastly, an interesting point one student brought up was the fact that Uber app allows users to send their location throughout the duration of the ride, to friends and family. This adds an element of Network Trust to Global Trust. If the Uber user starts to feel unsafe, or the Uber driver is untrustworthy, then the user can bring in a third party to virtually look after their safety. These individual features on the technologies are there to encourage users to trust, even though they are essentially trusting strangers.
A sociology professor here at UIC was kind enough to sit down with me and discuss his feelings on how trust plays a role in our sharing economy. Let’s listen to what he had to say.
[MUSIC]
[WILLIAM BIELBY] I am William Bielby. I am a professor of sociology at UIC. I teach courses on organizations, inequality… uh… issues related to race, gender, discriminations in organizations and I teach courses on quantitative methods.
[AL] Okay! Uh… so that’s your area of expertise? Around race and inequalities?
[WB] Yeah, organizations… organizations and inequality.
[AL] Okay! Very nice. Um… so… how is trust defined by sociologists and how is it studied?
[WB] Yeah… um… well I guess it comes up in my world, in the area of organizations in terms of… um… how we coordinate activities… in organizations. Okay, so… um… and the classic distinction is sort of rules versus markets. Um, so… people engage in certain behaviors because they are constrained to follow certain rules and um… they conform because the rules there. Or individuals… um, engage in certain behaviors because of an exchange relationship and it’s mutually uh… beneficial to each to live up to their side of the bargain. And… um… there is no such thing as a pure exchange relationship… market relationship where it’s you know… um… doing what you’re supposed to, living up to your end of… your obligations. Your organization is like buying a stock on a stock exchange. There is an element of trust involved. Um… a, an understanding between the two parties that…um… each pers… each side shares a common orientation. And will live up to their obligations. Without having to have a written contract. Okay, so issue of trust in organizations is sort of a key concept in organizations. So I guess sort of a mutual orientation to… uh… abide by certain shared understandings of what it means to be a competent person inside an organization.
[AL] Yeah, and I think that absolutely fits in with a sharing economy. Right? So that sharing you know without an actual contact. That all fits.
[WB] Right, absolutely. The rise of sort of contingent work and subcontracting and all sorts of nonstandard relationships… what used to be seen as non-standard. You’re not working in a big bureaucracy where everybody is rule-bound. It raised… made issues of trust more interesting in organizational sociology.
[AL] Mhm. And.. how do you think trust has changed throughout history with all these technological advancements… and organizational advancements?
[WB] Um… I… I would say that…the uh… the social construct concept of trust, the social psychological concept of trust as a feature of social interaction, hasn’t changed at all. Um… but that it just manifests itself in different ways or becomes like maybe more important as we rely on organizations that are more organic or more network, that are less rule-based… are more flexible, nimble, and so on.
[AL] Good. And um… do you believe that a sharing economy increases our trust in our society… or decreases it?
[WB] Um [long pause] yeah I guess I’m agnostic on that. Um… you know, uh… I guess according to like… like formal economic models that don’t deal with trust… uh… would I think maybe would maybe suggest that sharing economies allow more opportunities… more changes for more opportunism. For people to take advantage of other people. Uh… but I think that… that.. sort of denies the ubiquitous of trust in.. uh.. in organizational economic relationships. So I don’t have a strong feeling one way or another on that.
[AL] Okay. And… I’m not sure how much you would know about this. But in your opinion, how do you think the media plays a role in this idea of trust within a sharing economy. Do you think it… it like, kind of stamps on, you shouldn’t trust these people or you can trust… how do you feel?
[WB] Again… I don’t have any strong opinions on that but um… I would say I guess my guess would be that um… for the most part, uh… media stories are about uh… problems of mistrust and um… you know the vulnerabilities of a sharing economy just because that’s a… that’s more news worthy than say there’s emerging forms of organizational forms that are built on trust and you know… it’s only specific circumstances that these kinds of things uh… break down. But whether people actually pay attention to… uh those kinds of narratives in the media and effects the way they orient towards organizational life, I don’t know.
[AL] Alright. And a couple of last questions that I’m going to ask everybody… is do you use Uber of Lift? Have you ever used those apps?
[WB] You know, I have them both and uh… I never have no.
[AL] No? Why not? You have them, so they’re available.
[WB] Um… you know, I don’t know. Uh.. like… like right here, its impossible to get a cab from UIC… from BSB. You can wait for an hour and um… it might be a generational thing. I just haven’t uh… uh… [pause] made the… made the leap yet uh… yeah.
[AL] Yeah? Alright. Well thank you very much. This has been very helpful.
[MUSIC]
[AL] Thanks again Professor Bielby for taking the time to speak with me. There was a lot of interesting information that he discussed in our interview. I learned a lot about the fundamental ideas behind organization trust and how it applies to sharing economies. There is a mutually beneficial arrangement inside a sharing economy. Each party benefits from living up to their side of the bargin. Take Uber for example, if all goes according to plan, the user will have gotten from point A to point B safely. The driver will receive a good rating, and be paid in the process. If one party of this exchange doesn’t live up to their obligation, then any number of things can go wrong: they may get a bad rating, they lose their job, or in extreme cases they may go to jail depending on the severity of their indiscretion. Another element of trust in sharing economy is the fact that these parties need to live up to their obligation without a contract.
When discussing how Professor Bielby thought trust has changed throughout history, he claimed the idea of trust hasn’t changed at all but rather the way it manifests itself is different. Through technology (such as the Uber app), our ideas of trust have been able to evolve based on features on these technologies.
I think the most important fact to take away from this discussion is the current state of trust in sharing economies. Right now, sharing economies are growing to continue and spread. Despite the media, and possibly some other members of society, telling us to not trust strangers, we are continuing to do so. I believe this is helping our society advance in ways we never thought it would.
[MUSIC: Podcast outro and theme music] Thanks for listening to Infonation! Coming to you from the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Communication. Our theme music was created by Shawn Rizvi, a 2015 graduate. Also, thank you to Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com for other music selections. We hope we picked your interest and you learned something new today. Please feel free to engage by rating, commenting or sharing our episodes.