This research examines trustworthiness assessments of other people within the online environments of social networking sites and the processes that are in place during those evaluations. By undertaking a qualitative study focused on Hyves, LinkedIn and IBM’s Beehive, trustworthiness assessments and the effects of trustworthiness cues were analyzed.
It can be concluded that social networking sites offer valuable possibilities for trustworthiness assessments. The results suggest that these online assessments have little to do with the simplistic view of merely using online ratings, testimonials and/or recommendations. It became clear that these processes are influenced by various factors, especially since the boundaries between offline and online connections are blurring and the self-posted information and identities on social networking sites are perceived as authentic. As such, trustworthiness dimensions within social networking sites do not differ from dimensions in real life.