It is pointed out in the passage that trust ----.

When economists try to explain why the internet is
more popular in one country that another, they
usually point to factors such as the number of PCs.
telephone lines or average years of schooling. But
something less quantifiable may be more
important: trust. This, at least, is the result of a
recent study, which compared 17 countries. The
Internet's anonymity and vastness encourage
misrepresentation and fraud. Thus, people who
are normally suspicious (and there are a lot of
them) lend to shun the medium, while more
trusting ones embrace it