Description du projet
De l’importance de la confiance dans l’économie du partage
L’économie collaborative couvre une grande variété de secteurs et connaît un essor rapide en Europe. Contribuant à l’économie de l’UE à hauteur de centaines de milliards d’euros, elle offre plus de choix aux consommateurs et de nouvelles possibilités aux entrepreneurs. On sait pourtant peu de choses sur les facteurs psychologiques ascendants qui déterminent le comportement des utilisateurs de l’économie collaborative. Pour assurer un partage responsable, la confiance est nécessaire mais pas suffisante. Le projet TRUSTPATH, financé par l’UE, développera et testera une théorie psychologique sur la façon dont les gens utilisent l’économie collaborative. L’hypothèse est que la confiance encouragée sans transparence peut conduire les utilisateurs à négliger les effets secondaires négatifs du commerce sur les autres personnes. Le projet permettra de mieux comprendre la psychologie de l’économie collaborative et d’informer les décideurs politiques qui cherchent à la réglementer. Les résultats seront également utiles aux entreprises qui souhaitent promouvoir un partage responsable entre les utilisateurs.
Objectif
The collaborative economy is estimated to add €160-€572 billion to the EU economy. Faced with blurry definitions in this emerging market, regulators use a top-down approach and introduce regulations that often fail to consider users’ behaviour. Although considerable knowledge on top-down regulatory solutions for the collaborative economy is accumulating, little is known about the bottom-up psychological factors driving the collaborative economy users’ behaviour. Online platforms rely and promote trust between users and service providers. For responsible sharing, however, trust is necessary but not sufficient. Only when trust is encouraged transparently can users share responsibly. TRUSTPATH will assess, if: (1) users are aware of, or motivated to learn about, the side effects of trade; (2) platforms’ promotion of trust increases users’ information neglect; and (3) transparent environments reduce information neglect and increase responsible sharing. Building on my expertise on trust and cooperation, and using insights from psychology, management, and economics, I will develop and test a novel psychological theory of how people use the collaborative economy: Transparency Based Trust theory (TBT). TBT’s novel hypothesis suggests trust encouraged without transparency leads users to neglect the negative side effects trade has on others. TRUSTPATH innovates by developing a novel methodology (the collaborative economy game) and using cutting-edge technologies (large-scale experiments). Support for TBT implies a major step forward in the systematic understanding of the collaborative economy in the social sciences, and the psychological mechanisms underlying users’ behaviour on platforms like Airbnb, Uber, and others. TRUSTPATH will contribute to establish a new field of study: the psychology of the collaborative economy; inform policymakers seeking to regulate the collaborative economy; and inform companies seeking to promote responsible sharing among users.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
1012WX Amsterdam
Pays-Bas