Trust (social science)
Trust is the belief that another person will do what is expected. It brings with it a willingness for one party (the trustor) to become vulnerable to another party (the trustee), on the presumption that the trustee will act in ways that benefit the trustor.[1][2][3] In addition, the trustor does not have control over the actions of the trustee.[1] Scholars distinguish between generalized trust (also known as social trust), which is the extension of trust to a relatively large circle of unfamiliar others, and particularized trust, which is contingent on a specific situation or a specific relationship.[1]
As the trustor is uncertain about the outcome of the trustee's actions, the trustor can only develop and evaluate expectations. Such expectations are formed with a view to the motivations of the trustee, dependent on their characteristics, the situation, and their interaction.[4] The uncertainty stems from the risk of failure or harm to the trustor if the trustee does not behave as desired.
In the social sciences, the subtleties of trust are a subject of ongoing research. In sociology and psychology, the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, fairness, or benevolence of another party. The term "confidence" is more appropriate for a belief in the competence of the other party.[5][6] A failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty.[7] In economics, trust is often conceptualized as reliability in transactions. In all cases, trust is a heuristic decision rule, allowing a person to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning.[8]
Types of trust identified in academic literature include contractual trust, competence trust and goodwill trust. American lawyer Charles Fried speaks of "contractual trust" as a "humdrum" experience based on the voluntary acceptance of contractual obligations: for example, people keep appointments and undertake commercial transactions.[9] "Competence trust" can be defined as "a belief in the other's ability to do the job or complete a task"; this term is applied, for example, in relation to cultural competence in healthcare.[10] In working relationships, "goodwill trust" has been described as "trust regarding the benevolence and integrity of [a] counterpart".[11] Four types of social trust are recognized:[12]
Philosophy[edit]
Many philosophers have written about different forms of trust. Most agree that interpersonal trust is the foundation on which these forms can be modeled.[68] For an act to be an expression of trust, it must not betray the expectations of the trustee. Some philosophers, such as Lagerspetz, argue that trust is a kind of reliance, though not merely reliance.[69] Gambetta argued that trust is the inherent belief that others generally have good intentions, which is the foundation for our reliance on them.[70] Philosophers such as Annette Baier challenged this view, asserting a difference between trust and reliance by saying that trust can be betrayed, whereas reliance can only be disappointed.[71] Carolyn McLeod explains Baier's argument with the following examples: we can rely on our clock to give the time, but we do not feel betrayed when it breaks, thus, we cannot say that we trusted it; we are not trusting when we are suspicious of another person, because this is in fact an expression of distrust.[68] The violation of trust warrants this sense of betrayal.[72] Thus, trust is different from reliance in the sense that a trustor accepts the risk of being betrayed.
Karen Jones proposed an emotional aspect to trust—optimism[73] that the trustee will do the right thing by the trustor, which is also described as "affective trust".[74] People sometimes trust others even without this optimistic expectation, instead hoping that by extending trust this will prompt trustworthy behavior in the trustee. This is known as "therapeutic trust"[75] and gives both the trustee a reason to be trustworthy, and the trustor a reason to believe they are trustworthy.
The definition of trust as a belief in something or a confident expectation about something[76] eliminates the notion of risk because it does not include whether the expectation or belief is favorable or unfavorable. For example, to expect a friend to arrive to dinner late because she has habitually arrived late for the last fifteen years is a confident expectation (whether or not we find her late arrivals to be annoying). The trust is not about what we wish for, but rather it is in the consistency of the data. As a result, there is no risk or sense of betrayal because the data exists as collective knowledge. Faulkner contrasts such "predictive trust" with the aforementioned affective trust, proposing that predictive trust may only warrant disappointment as a consequence of an inaccurate prediction, not a sense of betrayal.[74]
Systems[edit]
In systems, a trusted component has a set of properties that another component can rely on. If A trusts B, a violation in B's properties might compromise A's correct operation. Observe that those properties of B trusted by A might not correspond quantitatively or qualitatively to B's actual properties. This occurs when the designer of the overall system does not consider the relation. Consequently, trust should be placed to the extent of the component's trustworthiness. The trustworthiness of a component is thus, not surprisingly, defined by how well it secures a set of functional and non-functional properties, deriving from its architecture, construction, and environment, and evaluated as appropriate.[107]
Other[edit]
Trust in politics is political efficacy.[108]