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Item Supporting detection of hostile intentions: automated assistance in a dynamic decision-making context(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-11) Patton, Colleen E.; Wickens, Christopher D.; Smith, C. A. P.; Noble, Kayla M.; Clegg, Benjamin A.In a dynamic decision-making task simulating basic ship movements, participants attempted, through a series of actions, to elicit and identify which one of six other ships was exhibiting either of two hostile behaviors. A high-performing, although imperfect, automated attention aid was introduced. It visually highlighted the ship categorized by an algorithm as the most likely to be hostile. Half of participants also received automation transparency in the form of a statement about why the hostile ship was highlighted. Results indicated that while the aid’s advice was often complied with and hence led to higher accuracy with a shorter response time, detection was still suboptimal. Additionally, transparency had limited impacts on all aspects of performance. Implications for detection of hostile intentions and the challenges of supporting dynamic decision making are discussed.Item Trust assessment in online social networks(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2017) Liu, Guangchi; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Qing YangAssessing trust in online social networks (OSNs) is critical for many applications such as online marketing and network security. It is a challenging problem, however, due to the difficulties of handling complex social network topologies and conducting accurate assessment in these topologies. To address these challenges, we model trust by proposing the three-valued subjective logic (3VSL) model. 3VSL properly models the uncertainties that exist in trust, thus is able to compute trust in arbitrary graphs. We theoretically prove the capability of 3VSL based on the Dirichlet-Categorical (DC) distribution and its correctness in arbitrary OSN topologies. Based on the 3VSL model, we further design the AssessTrust (AT) algorithm to accurately compute the trust between any two users connected in an OSN. AT is able to accurately conduct one-to-one trustworthiness, however, it is inefficient in addressing the massive trust assessment (MTA) problem, i.e., computing one-to-many trustworthiness in OSNs. MTA plays a vital role in OSNs, e.g., identifying trustworthy opinions in a crowdsourcing system. If the AssessTrust algorithm is applied directly to solve the MTA problem, its time complexity is exponential. To efficiently address MTA, we propose the OpinionWalk algorithm that yields an polynomial-time complexity. OpinionWalk uses a matrix to represent a social network's topology and a vector to store the trustworthiness of all users in the network. The vector is iteratively updated when the algorithm 'walks' through the entire network. To validate the 3VSL model, we first conduct a numerical analysis. An online survey system is then implemented to validate the correctness and accuracy of 3VSL in the real world. Finally, we validate 3VSL against two real-world OSN datasets: Advogato and Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). Experimental results indicate that 3VSL can accurately model the trust between any pair of indirectly connected users in the Advogato and PGP. To evaluate the performance of the AssessTrust and OpinionWalk algorithms, we use the same datasets. Compared to the state-of-art solutions, e.g., EigenTrust and MoleTrust, OpinionWalk yields the same order of time complexity and a higher accuracy in trust assessment.Item A reputation for the good stuff: user feedback signaling and the deep web market silk road(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2016) Sears, James Matthew; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonDespite complete user anonymity, asymmetrical information, and incomplete enforcement mechanisms, the deep web market Silk Road facilitated approximately $200 million in illegal drug sales in 34 months. This study tests how the site's reputation system facilitated successful transactions and how user feedback functioned as the primary signal of seller quality in the absence of formal contract enforcement. Using novel data from the site on marijuana, amphetamine, and meth transactions, listings, and vendors, I find strong evidence that consumers engaged with the site's reputation system and relied on both item and seller-level information. Hedonic regressions provide evidence of a 'bad news' learning environment, estimating a 3 to 11% price discount for negative item reviews. Seller ratings are found to act as an effective proxy for permanent seller characteristics, and named trains act as a primary source of quality (and price) differentiation for marijuana. I find no evidence of price penalties or signal heterogeneity for new sellers. This study is the first to shed light on the value of reputation on the deep web's largest marketplace, yielding new insight into the mechanisms modern markets use to overcome social distance and prevent market failure.Item Trust matters: Why augmenting water supplies via desalination may not overcome perceptual water scarcity(2016-11-16) Fragkou, Maria Christina; McEvoy, JamieHistorically, water scarcity has been understood to result from unfavorable climatological and hydrological factors. From this perspective, infrastructural solutions that augment water supplies, such as desalination, are seen as the way to overcome physical resource limits and resolve water scarcity. Drawing on theories of scarcity, risk perception, trust, and governance, we argue that past experiences with poor water quality and a long-standing mistrust of water providers create a particular mode of water scarcity: perceptual scarcity. This paper presents findings from household surveys conducted in two arid Latin American cities where large-scale desalination projects have been undertaken to provide potable water. While both projects use state-of-the-art desalination technology, our survey results indicate that the majority of respondents do not drink desalinated water from their taps and purchase bottled water instead. Our results show that, despite significant investments in infrastructure, respondents still lack an adequate supply of water that is perceived to be fit for human consumption. The two case studies provide empirical evidence that challenges the assumption that desalination technology will resolve water quality and water scarcity concerns. We conclude that institutional investments that promote a more reliable and trustworthy water governance system are as important as investments in physical infrastructure.Item Interpersonal trust measurements from social interactions in Facebook(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2014) Li, Xiaoming; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Qing YangInterpersonal trust is widely cited as an important component in several network systems such as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, e-commerce and semantic web. However, there has been less research on measuring interpersonal trust due to the difficulty of collecting data that accurately reflects interpersonal trust. To address this issue, we quantify interpersonal trust by analyzing the social interactions between users and their friends on Facebook. Currently, friends of a user in almost all online social networks (OSN) are indistinguishable, i.e. there is no explicit indication of the strength of trust between a user and her close friends, as opposed to acquaintances. Existing research on estimating interpersonal trust in OSN faces two fundamental problems: the lacks of established dataset and a convincing evaluation method. In this thesis, we consider bidirectional interacting data in OSN to deconstruct a user's social behavior, and apply Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to estimate the interpersonal trust. A Facebook app, itrust, is developed to collect interaction data and calculate interpersonal trust. Moreover, we adopt the Kendall's tau and Generalized Kendall's tau methods to evaluate the accuracy of ranking list generated by itrust. Results show that itrust achieves more accurate interpersonal trust measurements than existing methods.Item Exploring trust in the provider - patient DYAD : capturing the mother's voice in her own words(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2014) Cline, Elize Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sandra KuntzIn 2013, Montana was ranked 50th, or the lowest ranking state, for child health status according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) was created when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. Several counties within Montana adopted the evidence-based Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) home visiting program under the direction of MIECHV. The NFP program delivers care to at-risk pregnant mothers and their children. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a review of the literature to investigate communication approaches that the NFP nurse uses or could use during a home visit with the mother, that strengthens the ability of the nurse to capture and empower the mother's voice as customer. Three databases were utilized with a total of ten search terms. A total of five qualitative articles were found that directly examined the voice of the mother receiving home visiting services. Trust was the key term used to examine components of the dyad relationship. Trust within the provider-patient relationship is important as it is tied directly to program engagement and positive outcomes. After analysis of the articles, six themes surfaced that the mothers expressed and included personality, friendship, availability, empowerment, reducing vulnerability, and testing. Additional sub themes included emotional support, knowing, control, verbal praise, advocacy, and respect. Little research exists that directly examines and seeks to garner the experiences of at-risk mothers participating in home visiting programs. Complicating the literature search was the finding that trust is poorly defined in nursing literature and the health science literature as a whole. Further research and inquiry is needed to understand, according to the patient perspective, how trust is built, maintained, broken, and repaired. Understanding the concept of trust according to the patient perspective is imperative as home visiting programs are implemented within the state of Montana. Capturing the voice of the customer is not only a mandate but is imperative to improve the health status of our State.Item An anytime algorithm for trust propagation in social networks(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2011) Hamilton, Andrew Johnson; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: John SheppardTrust propagation in social networks is a challenging task. It is difficult to model human trust, and the data is huge and very sparse. Due to these challenges, the algorithms available to propagate trust have complexity issues. We used the MRFTrust algorithm created by Tosun and Sheppard to produce an anytime algorithm for trust propagation. To do this we use sampling techniques and increased horizon size to reduce the complexity and decrease runtimes. We show that we can dramatically reduce the number of nodes considered in the algorithm, yet still achieve a superior result.Item The influence of relational trust between the superintendent and union president(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2007) Swain, Jo Elyn Christiansen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Ruff.Relational trust focuses on the distinct roles within a district setting and the obligations and expectations each has within the organizational. When obligations and expectations are met, this enhances trust within the school or district environment. School districts across America are influenced by labor statute, which drive negotiation processes between school boards and classroom teachers. The negotiations process in school districts today is predominately driven by collective bargaining statutes; however, a small number of states, categorized as Right to Work states, embrace other bargaining practices, such as the meet and confer process. The purpose of this comparative case study was to examine, describe and compare the importance of trust in school districts as it relates to the relationship between the union president and the superintendent bound by a collective bargaining process and the relationship between the union president and the superintendent not bound by the collective bargaining process. Also, this study examined the influence this relationship has on superintendent leadership behaviors. Two small, rural school districts, one in Montana and one in Wyoming, were the focus of this study.