Colors and Trust: The Influence of User Interface Design on Trust and Reciprocity

Interpersonal trust and reciprocation are crucial factors in peer-to-peer online interactions. In order to shed more light on the association of user interface (UI) design and trusting as well as reciprocating behavior, we consider a computerized trust game with different interface background colors, red and blue, namely. We locate our work within recent NeuroIS theory, linking UI background color to user behavior via perceived warmth of UIs and color appeal. The results of a laboratory experiment indicate an enhancing effect of red interfaces on reciprocation behavior, fully mediated by perceived warmth. We suggest to further investigate this phenomenon by applying NeuroIS methodology.