The effects of trust-assuring arguments on consumer trust in Internet stores: Application of Toulmin's model of argumentation

A trust–assuring argument refers to ‘a claim and its supporting statements used in an Internet store to address trust–related issues.’ Although trust–assuring arguments often appear in Internet stores, little research has been conducted to understand their effects on consumer trust in an Internet store. The goals of this study are (1) to investigate whether or not the provision of trust–assuring arguments on the website of an Internet store increase consumer trust in that Internet store and (2) to identify the most effective form of trust–assuring arguments to provide guidelines for their implementation.