The Role of Trust
in Technological
Devices for Electoral
Decision-Making
Claudia Zucca
Istanbul, March 13th 2015
Technology and
Decision-Making
 The process of electoral decision-making is
nowadays challenged by the massive use of
technological devices.
 Several kind of devices in use at the moment
 The user needs to trust the device she is using
otherwise the device will make no impact for the
decision she is going to take (credibility of the
source, e-commerce literature)
Original Contribution
 Wide literature in:



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decision-making processes
technological devices
conditions under which media could influence decision-making
trust and trust in technological devices (e.g. e-voting)
 What has been left out that justifies the existence of this
research?
 The role played by trust, as a moderator of the influence of
the information provided by technological devices and
specifically VAAs.
Research Questions
 Q1a) What is Trust in VAAs?
 Q1b) What are the determinants of trust in VAAs?
 Q1c) How is it possible to measure trust in VAAs?
 Q1d) What is the role of technology and specifically
VAAs for decision-making?
 Q2) Do the previously set determinants of trust
influence the level of trust in VAAs?
 Q3) Does trust in a VAA platform affect electoral
decision-making?
Hypothesis 1
 H1a) The previously set determinants of trust increase
the level of trust in VAAs
 H1b) The previously set determinants of trust increase
the level of trust also in other online technological
devices.
Hypothesis 2
 H3) Trust in the VAAs platform positively influences
electoral decision-making.
 H3a) Trust in the VAAs platforms positively influences
vote choice
 H3b) Trust in the VAAs platforms positively influences
electoral participation.
Empirical Analysis
1. What is Trust?
2. Measuring Trust
1. Unconscious Trust
2. Conscious Trust
3. Experiment 1: VAAs in Comparison
4. Experiment 2: VAAs vs. other Technological Devices
5. Test Trust in Vote Choice
6. Test Trust in Electoral Participation
1.What is Trust?
 Fulfillment of the expectations of the
user over a technological device
 This definition takes into account both
conscious and unconscious perceptions
of trust
2.Measuring Trust
 Measuring the unconscious trust and what
determines it
 Aesthetics and Usability
 Measuring the conscious perception of trust
 Survey
2.1 The Unconscious
Determinants of Trust
2.2 Measuring Conscious
Trust
 Questions for the user:
 Pre VAA: Do you consider the response this platform
will provide to be trustworthy and able to influence your
vote choice?
 Pop-up: To what extent do you consider the response
you were given trustworthy?
 Pop-up: How is the developer of the VAA you just used
important for you to trust the response of the VAA?
3. Experiment 1: VAAs in
Comparison
 Testing whether the four selected variables (design,
colours, visual clear, and content clear) increase the
level of trust in the VAA platform.
 For instance:
 first VAA: poor design, not appealing colours, not very
clear visualisation, all contents with the same font ;
 the second VAA: very elaborated design, colourful,
several fonts, content well organised in different places.
4. Experiment 2: VAAs vs. other
Technological Devices
 The users will be invited to use a VAA, an egovernment website and several electoral platforms
belonging to one electoral campaign in three different
occasions.
 The four variables (design, colours, visual clear,
content clear) will be tested in the three experimental
settings.
5. Test Trust in Vote Choice
 Bayesian Statistics
 Priors: pre VAA Trust, pre VAA vote choice
 Posteriors: post VAA Trust, post VAA vote choice,
variable measuring learning
 Learning: measured by asking in the pop-up questions
 Do you think this VAA helped you learn something new about
your political affiliation?
6. Test Trust in Electoral
Participation
 Bayesian Statistics
 Priors: Trust pre VAA, intention to participate pre VAA
 Measured by the question:
 Do you think you are going to vote?
 Posteriors: Trust post VAA, intention to participate after
VAA,
 Measure by question (in the pop-up):
 After the use of the VAA do you think you are going to vote?