Building Bridges in the Digital Age: How Online Platforms Foster Trust During a Crisis

Trust has long been studied as a key factor in explaining why an actor is willing to risk vulnerability to others amid uncertainty and potential risks. While various forms and antecedents of trust have been explored, its development between strangers during periods of heightened uncertainty remains underexamined. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative study of a mutual aid platform launched during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Our process model identifies three core digital affordances—verifiability, targetability, and protectability—that foster institution-based trust among platform users. Additionally, our findings suggest that institution-based trust acts as a critical precursor to emotional trust. This indicates that digital platforms not only activate impersonal, system-based trust as previously theorized, but also enhance interpersonal and emotional trust. Moreover, we show that positive platform interactions during times of crisis can lead users to extend their trust to a broader range of societal members and social activities beyond platform interactions. Lastly, our study highlights that while uncertainty is essential for trust to emerge, trust building on platforms also depends on the platform provider’s established reputation, which aids trust transfer and facilitates the initial exploration of the platform.