Robocalling: STIRRED AND SHAKEN! - An Investigation of Calling Displays on Trust and Answer Rates

Billions of robocalls annually have undermined the public's trust in the entire phone system. New functionality, called STIR/SHAKEN (S/S), hopes to help fix this issue by detecting whether a call is coming from the number it says it is. However, due to the nature of the system, at first only a portion of calls would go through the S/S system. This led us to question whether presenting this information would confuse users more than help. In this paper, we detail the results of online surveys, in-person interviews, and a lab-based simulation. The research recommends "Valid Number" for the label on the display and found that even with only 30% of calls being validated, S/S increased trust, answer frequency and consumer satisfaction. Based on these results, the launch of S/S could positively affect the current phone system and re-establish consumer trust.