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0vei the past yeai oui team has establisheu a significant ieseaich
paitneiship with CouchSuifing.oig, an inteinational hospitality netwoik with close
to S million cuiient membeis woiluwiue. Since the )*+,-.+"/012 oiganization has
collecteu uetaileu infoimation about the inteiactions between its useis stuuying this
netwoik piesents a gieat oppoitunity to bettei unueistanu ielationships that
involve tiust anu tiustwoithiness. We analyzeu the available uata on Ameiican
)*+,-.+"/012 membeis fiom the founuing of the oiganization in 2uuS to the fall of
2uu9. In this piess ielease we biiefly iepoit on oui cuiient finuings in foui key
aieas of inquiiy, with the caveat that we aie still in the pieliminaiy stages of
analyzing the uata anu that none of these iesults have yet been publisheu.

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It is wiuely known that people tenu to be fiienus with people who aie similai to
them. Social scientists label this phenomenon, "homophily." When investigating
)*+,-.+"/012 uata, howevei, we uncoveieu what appeais to be a woilu with
stiikingly less homophily than commonly expecteu. We have establisheu this effect
with iespect to age anu we hope to expanu oui ieseaich to exploie othei social
chaiacteiistics that might be linkeu to the choice of a host oi guest on the site.

Wheieas young people typically inteiact with those of veiy close age to themselves,
Ameiican )*+,-.+"/#"$ between 18 anu SS yeais of age engage in hospitality
inteiactions (hosting oi being hosteu) with one anothei without iegaiu to age
uiffeience. Foi example, a 2u-yeai-olu-CouchSuifei is equally like to inteiact with an
18-yeai-olu, as she is to inteiact with a SS-yeai-olu. The same was tiue foi
inuiviuuals between the ages of SS anu Su as well as foi people Su anu oluei. This
finuing has two caveats: (1) oveiall theie aie fewei exchanges between membeis of
uiffeient age gioups than woulu be expecteu anu (2) oluei membeis of the
oiganization aie less likely to cioss age-gioup bounuaiies. Thus, a S6-yeai-olu is
less likely to inteiact with somebouy youngei than SS oi oluei than Su anu
somebouy who is SS has a stiong piefeience foi inteiacting with somebouy of the
same age.

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)*+,-.+"/012 opeiates on the possibility that complete stiangeis will host oi be
hosteu foi a night oi two in theii homes. What appeais exteinally as a complicateu
act of balancing tiust is a mattei of ioutine foi membeis of the )*+,-.+"/012
community.

While it is likely that those who join )*+,-.+"/012 may be pieuisposeu to "tiust"
stiangeis, unueistanuing how these people manage iisk anu how tiust flows
between them iemain impoitant ieseaich questions. )*+,-.+"/012 collects
confiuential iatings about theii useis' tiust in each othei. We analyzeu a sample of
such iatings that weie iecoiueu aftei useis engageu in the act of hosting oi being
hosteu by a stiangei (iefeiieu to as a hospitality exchange).

We uiscoveieu that, holuing othei things constant, women tenu to be moie cautious
in theii inteiactions, but also to be seen as moie tiustwoithy. Fuitheimoie, we finu
that pievious expeiiences have an effect on cuiient inclinations to tiust, even if
these expeiiences weie completeu with useis unielateu to the cuiient paitnei.
Thus, positive pievious expeiiences with )*+,-.+"/012 make some moie inclineu to
tiust now, wheieas negative pievious expeiiences, as might be expecteu, make one
moie cautious.

A similai iesult emeigeu with iespect to the ieputation of one's potential paitnei,
communicateu on )*+,-.+"/012 thiough a system of "iefeiences." Positive
iefeiences obtaineu by the paitnei piioi to the exchange inciease the likelihoou of
being tiusteu, wheieas negative iefeiences have the opposite effect. Reputation
plays a iole in tiusting inteiactions, only when a host consiueis a potential guest,
but not vice-veisa? This suggests that hosts sciutinize the web piofiles of theii
potential guests moie than the ieveise, inuicating an asymmetiy in how the two
ioles aie inteipieteu by membeis.

All of these vaiiables play a iole in tiust-baseu inteiactions, but the most impoitant
ueteiminant of inteipeisonal tiust on )*+,-.+"/012 iemains, unsuipiisingly, the
uiiect expeiience between useis. Fuitheimoie, negative infoimation of any kinu
(piioi expeiience, ieputation, uiiect expeiience) has a uispiopoitionately gieatei
effect than positive infoimation.

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In hospitality exchanges, CouchSuifing useis can play eithei of two iolesthat of a
host anu that of a guest. A question aiises as to what extent the two ioles aie
segiegateu, anu to what extent this iole segiegation iemains stable ovei time. 0ui
pieliminaiy analysis suggests that inueeu the majoiity of useis play almost
exclusively eithei one of the two ioles anu that fewei people aie both hosts anu
guests. We founu this level of iole specialization in the community to be a stable
tiait of )*+,-.+"/012 uuiing the time peiiou we examineu.

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Ethnogiaphic woik acioss seveial countiies also ieveals that )*+,-.+"/012 has
cieateu veiy stiong local communities in many places aiounu the woilu. We suspect
this fact helps stiengthen the oiganization. By looking at a numbei of local netwoiks
in the 0niteu States oui investigation uncoveieu iathei suipiising iesults. Buiing
the fiist few yeais aftei the oiganization was founueu, local netwoiks weie foimeu
piimaiily by fiienus joining the oiganization togethei. As a iesult eveiy city we
examineu with netwoik analysis uuiing this eaily time peiiou shows uisconnecteu
clusteis of pie-existing fiienuships. Bowevei, thiee to five yeais aftei the founuing
of the oiganization, fiienuship ties foimeu within the oiganization piolifeiateu in
some cities, connecting the myiiau sepaiate clusteis piesent in the local netwoiks.
An example of this phenomenon is illustiateu in the attacheu netwoik movie
compileu foi San Fiancisco.


The Reseaich Team (listeu alphabetically):

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