The Role of Trust in Technological Devices for Electoral Decision-Making Claudia Zucca Istanbul, March 13 th 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: 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 e- government 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?