What Do We Mean When We Talk about Trust in Social Media? A Systematic Review

TL;DR

This systematic review analyzes 70 studies to clarify how trust in social media is defined, conceptualized, and measured, highlighting its antecedents and effects on user behavior and attitudes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of trust definitions, conceptualizations, and measurements in social media research, and identifies key themes and challenges for future studies.

Findings

Trust in social media is variably defined and measured.

Multiple antecedents influence trust, including content, platform, and user factors.

Trust impacts user behaviors and attitudes towards social media.

Abstract

Do people trust social media? If so, why, in what contexts, and how does that trust impact their lives? Researchers, companies, and journalists alike have increasingly investigated these questions, which are fundamental to understanding social media interactions and their implications for society. However, trust in social media is a complex concept, and there is conflicting evidence about the antecedents and implications of trusting social media content, users, and platforms. More problematic is that we lack basic agreement as to what trust means in the context of social media. Addressing these challenges, we conducted a systematic review to identify themes and challenges in this field. Through our analysis of 70 papers, we contribute a synthesis of how trust in social media is defined, conceptualized, and measured, a summary of trust antecedents in social media, an understanding of how trust in social media impacts behaviors and attitudes, and directions for future work.