Investigating interactions of trust and interest similarity

Online communities that allow their users to express their personal preferences, such as the members they trust and the products they appreciate, are becoming increasingly popular. Exploiting these communities as playgrounds for sociological research we present two frameworks for analyzing the correlation between interpersonal trust and interest similarity. We obtain empirical results from applying the two frameworks on two real, operational communities, that suggest there is a strong correlation between both trust and interest similarity. We believe our findings particularly relevant for ongoing research in recommender systems and collaborative filtering, where people are suggested products based on their similarity with other customers, and propose ways in which trust models can be integrated into these systems. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.