Teams without trust? Investigations in the influence of video-mediated communication on the origin of trust among cooperating persons

Based on a model about the origin of trust among persons, who are meeting f or the first time, the influence of video-mediated communication on confide nce building was tested. Using a 'between-subjects'-design, two groups were compared, one carrying out a cooperative task face-to-face, the other usin g a video-conferencing system. Three measurements were taken. Measurement 1 registered the effects of anticipation. One group was instructed to get so mebody to know face-to-face, the other group should meet their partner by v ideo-conference. Measurement 2 registered the amount of trust the subjects had developed in their partner during the session. Measurement 3 was the an alysis of the interpersonal interaction processes during the conversation. The results are that subjects who anticipated a video-conference showed no difference in mean, but a highly reduced variability in their assessment of their counterpart compared to those subjects who anticipated a meeting fac e-to-face. A similar pattern was observed for measurement 2. However, no sy stematically meaningful difference in the behavioural categories of measure ment 3 could be found. The results are similar to experiments mostly carrie d out in the 1970s and 1980s, which had focused on comparisons between face -to-face and mediated communication.