Trust is essential: positive effects of information systems on users’ memory require trust in the system

Abstract

Initial results suggest that decision support systems (DSSs) can trigger ‘directed forgetting’ in business settings if users trust in the DSS. In the present study, we further examined this trust effect on DSS-cued forgetting and related positive effects on users’ cognitive resources, performance, and well-being. Moreover, we investigated how trust translates into behavioural intentions to use a DSS, and into actual usage of the DSS. Finally, we examined if risk-related framing of decision outcomes (loss vs. gain framing) moderates trust effects on directed forgetting and behavioural intentions. In line with our expectations, results of an experiment with N = 200 participants confirmed that trust significantly enhances directed forgetting, performance, and well-being. Behavioural intentions fully mediated the trust effect on DSS use. Framing of decision outcomes showed no moderation but a main effect on directed forgetting, with loss framing reducing the directed forgetting effect.

Practitioner summary: This experimental study demonstrates the importance of trust in information systems to leverage positive effects of these systems on users’ cognitive resources, performance, and well-being in a simulated complex business setting.

Abbreviations: DSS(s): decision support system(s); R–F: remember-forget difference; ANOVA: difference analysis of variance

Keywords:

• Directed forgetting
• decision making
• trust in technology
• information quality
• system quality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data of this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3530560

Notes

Notes

1 The mean age in the final sample did not significantly differ from the mean age (M = 25.29, SD = 7.60) of the excluded cases, t(20.77) = 1.47, p = .156 (two-sided), d = -.64. Participants’ gender was neither significantly associated to the exclusion (86% male), χ²(1, N = 221) = 3.10, p = .088 (two-sided), suggesting that the excluded cases did not significantly differ from the final sample regarding demographics.

2 Mauchly’s test suggested that the assumption of sphericity had been violated, therefore, we report degrees of freedom that were corrected using the Huynh-Feldt estimates of sphericity (ε = .87).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) under Grant HE 2745/16-1 and BE 1422/21-1.