Graduation Term
2014
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
School of Communication
Committee Chair
Daniel C. Davis
Committee Member
Sandra M. Metts
Abstract
Couchsurfing is a website community allowing members to offer and receive travel accommodations, with members, typically connecting online before meeting offline. Risky behaviors associated with Couchsurfing require members to have great amounts of trust for the other parties involved. Because trust can be achieved through uncertainty reduction and considering the predicted outcome value, the present study seeks to determine how members seek information online in order to trust other members. An online questionnaire was circulated to Couchsurfing hosts to report about what website features provide the most essential information to trust other members and, within those features, what additionally members look for to build trust. Within each of the website features, essentiality was determined for specific communicative aspects of each feature. Findings indicated that the website features hosts rely on most when making decisions to accept or reject a request are the references and request message. Qualitative responses elaborated on and clarified quantitative findings.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Cherney, Maura Rae, "Surf's up: Communicative Aspects of Online Trust-Building via Reducing Uncertainty Online in Couchsurfing" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 162.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/162
DOI
http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2014.Cherney.M