Trust is difficult to establish over the internet. This paper states that trust in a group is best established beforehand through in person meetings. However, it is possible to mitigate the lack of trust through prior computer mediated communication strategies too. This follows the common belief that having prior social interaction, or at least knowledge of the other party, will establish some trust. The study consisted of experimenting among groups who experienced various levels of introduction before playing a trading simulation game to measure trust levels.
The study seems to believe that it is possible to replace collocated collaboration with ample technology, especially for relationships requiring less trust. This is against the beliefs and reasonings pointed out by Gary Olson and Judith Olson in Distance Matters (link) in 2000. I understand that technology has likely improved since that publication, as to minimize the effects of distance on communication, but this paper is published in 2002. Even today, especially for more intimate bonding relationships, physical proximity is crucial.
Though mainly for metaphorical purposes, this paper emphasized the importance of touch. Haptic feedbacks and communication has been a popular field of study as of late. There is now a glove to facilitate long distance touch (link). Social touch for a calming effect has also been studied (link). These all serve to minimize a sense of distance in online communication. However, in work related teams, is touch really necessary? I rarely, if ever, touch my academic peers. Reaching into a psychological field, would physical touch actually improve trust in groups?
This research reminded me of the study on team dating (link). Although the introduction beforehand seemed to agree with the study done on team dating, the two results are conflicting. The study on team dating showed that meeting previously did not enable better work results, only when the members matched with each other did they collaborate better. I understand trust and productivity is not equivalent, but the dissimilarity still shocks me.
Following this study, the next step would be to study more methods of online communication and how they influence trust. The most interactive CMC studied was chatting. Nowadays, there are video calling, VRchat, and even haptic communication like I previously mentioned. Are those even more beneficial? At what point is saturation reached and online communication peaks in its ability to facilitate trust? Is that point close enough to real, physical meeting? I am under the impression that distance still matters, but only for emotionally bonded intimate relationships and friendships. For work relationships, if online communication were as effective in information delivery, distance does not matter as much.