QUESTION #036
Forming
Can trust in a site be seen before the first click?
The stay-or-leave decision happens before the first headline is read. We do not know what it is made of.
Why the question came up
Clients ask for "a site people trust" and mean testimonials, logos and numbers. But distrust usually arrives earlier — at the level of type, density and order.
What is already known
- Formal trust markers are easy to fake, so they stop working as a signal.
- The one thing that is hard to fake is coherence: the same rules on every page.
What is not known yet
- What exactly a person reads in the first seconds: contrast, rhythm, density or predictability.
- Whether trust in the presentation can be separated from trust in the content.
Current hypothesis
Hypothesis
Trust comes from predictability: the page behaves the way its first screen promised.
Next step
Formulate a testable setup. The question is still forming — no materials under it yet.