Distrust and trust in B2C e-commerce: do they differ?

  • Authors:

  • D. Harrison McKnight;Vivek Choudhury

  • Affiliations:

  • Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI;University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Venue:
  • ICEC '06 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Electronic commerce: The new e-commerce: innovations for conquering current barriers, obstacles and limitations to conducting successful business on the internet
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Researchers have not studied e-commerce distrust as much as e-commerce trust. This study examines whether trust and distrust are distinct concepts. If trust and distrust are the same, lack of distrust research matters little. But if they are different, the lack of distrust research could be problematic because distrust may have a unique B2C impact. While some researchers believe distrust simply means a low level of trust, others believe distrust is a concept entirely separate from trust. For the latter to be true, trust and distrust variables must first demonstrate discriminant validity from each other, and second, differ in what they themselves predict. This paper tests whether or not trust and distrust variables are distinct. It finds that three sets of trust and distrust concepts are discriminant from each other and that they tend to predict different variables. The findings also show that distrust is an important predictor of risky B2C actions like willingness to share information and willingness to purchase.