Investigating the Effects of Electronic Self-Portrayal on Trust in Virtual Teams

This research addresses the concept of electronic self-portrayal in synchronous computermediated communication of ad-hoc virtual teams. Electronic self-portrayal is the extent to which a communication system portrays the true identity of its users. It is hypothesized that increased information available due to self-portrayal will have an effect upon the trust and performance of ad-hoc virtual teams. An experiment is conducted to isolate the effects of electronic self-portrayal by manipulating the graphical identification of users of a system as well as the rehearsability of the system. Rehearsability is the extent to which users are able to reread and edit their messages before submitting them to the synchronous communication system. Preliminary results show that the combination of both factors – identification and rehearsability – impacts interpersonal trust among team members. The implication of these results is that when too much true identity information is passed along the communication channel, inter-team trust is negatively impacted.