Chronicles of lived experiences for studying the process of trust building in carpooling

The goal of our research is to characterize user experience of carpoolers and more particularly their process of building trust, which allow them to cope with the perceived risks. This communication presents two passengers' chronicles of lived experiences, completed by other qualitative data, and detail how this social and mediated activity is really lived through 7 key sequences. We show that users may perceive 4 different kinds of moderate or higher risks, which leads them to pay attention to the ride conditions and driver profile. The sources of trust and mistrust are mainly linked to the relational, organizational, road safety, or vehicle and passenger placement dimensions. From the first sequence of "Choosing a ride" to the post-ride sequence, most users are sensitive to these elements to build trust; but this process is fragile and can be deconstructed at any time. We argue that web carpooling platforms must be particularly cautious about the available indicators which reassure the users, in order to encourage new one to practice and to maintain a critical mass of carpoolers. We finally discuss some ergonomic recommendations and methodological perspectives for studying trust. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).