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1. Introduction
Trust is a key component of teamwork ([2] Ahn et al. , 2007; [8] Barber et al. , 2007; [81] Moreland and Levine, 2002; [98] Salas et al. , 2008a, [99] b), regulating the ability of people in the team to interact with other team members and influencing the level of information flow between parties ([58] Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1998). Trust is deeply connected to successful team performance and has been declared a key component of successful and effective teams ([13] Berry, 2011; [33] Driskell and Salas, 1992; [40] Erdem and Ozen, 2003; [44] Gibson and Cohen, 2003; [77] Meyerson et al. , 1996; [88] Politis, 2003; [101] Schuman, 2006), because without proper communication and collaboration, both of which are influenced by trust, teams cannot function properly.
With the evolution of workplaces and the quick adoption of remote collaborations, virtual teams, and computer mediated communication systems (CMCSs) ([58] Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1998; [87] Pfaff, 2012), the formation of trust is now affected by the loss of media richness caused by the limited available communication channels ([3] Aljukhadar et al. , 2010; [29] Daft and Lengel, 1984). Reduced media richness, associated with task-oriented communications ([89] Rhoads, 2010), has diminished the availability of social and behavioural trust cues that are vital to the formation of informed trust states ([83] Morita and Burns, 2012). The major consequences for trust formation in these scenarios are low, slow, and fragile trust, which can impact team performance ([16] Bos et al. , 2002). Considering that performance is one of the most desirable indicators of an effective team, there is a need to address this diminished availability of cues in order to allow teams to achieve their optimal performance. Techniques such as relying on initial face-to-face contact ([26] Corbitt et al. , 2004; [93] Rocco, 1998; [121] Wilson et al. , 2006) or using personal profiles for the disclosure of information ([97] Rusman et al. , 2010) to increase the availability of information, have been explored by other authors with varied levels of success. Another possible technique still to be investigated is the use interface components to convey trust-supporting information. The major advantage of this last approach is that information is presented on every interaction mediated by the CMCSs,...