Analysis of Web Trust Networks

Many online communities allow their users to express trust of other users in order to facilitate users´ assessment of reliable information sources and encourage trustworthy behavior in the community. Such Web trust networks are central to several emerging innovations, including trust-based recommendation and viral marketing. However, prior studies mainly focus on technology development for these applications but pay less attention on understanding Web trust networks. In this study, we analyze characteristics of Web trust networks and properties of trust relationships, using three Web trust networks extracted from epinions.com. Our empirical analysis suggests that the Web trust networks of different product categories exhibit different characteristics, members with different trust intensity share similar trusting behavior, and people who trust more (or less) trustworthy members tend to be more (or less) trustworthy. Finally, our analysis also finds that trust reciprocality is contingent on members´ trust intensity.