Reputation and Trust

Uncertainty and Risk

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What are the Solutions to Uncertainty in the Social Environment?

Proxy’s and ‘inferred trustworthiness’ Herd behavior

If everyone is using it, it has to be good…right?

Closed Systems versus Open Systems

3rd party reputation is perhaps the most common solution What about when reputation is not

possible (or practical)?

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Reputation as a Solution to the Problem of Uncertainty: Information Asymmetries

Problem of Lemons (Akerlof, 1970)

Information asymmetry in the marketplace

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What constitutes a reputation?

What they do… Foster good behavior Punish bad behavior Reduce risk in long term

Transmission can be word-of-mouth, or more chronicled directly

Reputations concern people and organizations, not things.

To be effective, require clear criteria and incentives

Explicit or Implicit?

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Positive, Negative and Mixed Reputation Systems

Positive Start at a baseline, can only go

up.

Negative Start at a baseline, can only go

down.

Mixed Start at a baseline, can go

below or above baseline

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For 3rd Party Reputations to Work...

Must have permanent identities.

Must make the feedback available for others to inspect.

Individuals have to actually pay attention to and use the reputations.

Trust and Trustworthiness

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Trustworthiness

Assessing Trustworthiness

Treated as a ‘characteristic’

Involves initial, one-shot interactions between parties

Theoretically linked to perceived competence and motivations of a given partner Competence to act in a way we deem appropriate Motivation to act in our best interests

Example Study Examining Trustworthiness: Online Sale Survey

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Assessing Trustworthiness

Tseng and Fogg (1999) [from Hertzum Anderson, et al]

First-hand experience Reputation Surface ‘attributes’ Stereotypes

First-hand experience is essential to building ‘trust’, as well as 3rd party reputations

Surface ‘attributes’ and ‘stereotypes’ more accurately about assessing trustworthiness.

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Approaches to Trust

Psychology Trust as “personality trait” (dispositional trust) Trust as learned experience (learned trust)

Philosophy Trust versus reliance and other concepts

Sociology Trust as behavior (situational trust)

Through risk and uncertainty Other factors such as the medium (i.e., CMC) Perceptions based on characteristics: assessment of

trustworthiness Trust as cognitive: It is reflected in attitudes about

another’s desire and ability to act in a positive way towards us in a given context.

“Trust concerns a positive expectation regarding the behavior of somebody or something in a situation that entails risk to the trusting party.”

“Trust exists whether it is explicitly recognized or not”

(Marsh and Dibben)

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Trust-Building in Sociological Sense

Trust-building

Involves repeated interactions between parties

Theoretically linked to risk in the social exchange situation (e.g., what is at stake in the interaction?)

Trust is not the same as cooperation

Trust-building can involve various types of uncertainty, which is also distinct from risk. (e.g., how confident are we in a particular outcome?)

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Locus of Trust

Interpersonal Trust

Organizational Trust Do organizations ‘trust’?

Society-level Trust “general trust”

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Trust versus Reliance

Role of Betrayal If we rely on someone to do

something, if he/she/it does not do so we are disappointed. i.e., inanimate objects (car

brakes, computer)

Role of ‘monitoring’ systems Monitoring and surveillance of

individuals: trust, distrust, or reliance?

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Trust in Information and Information Systems

“providers” E.g., virtual agent

representations

“trusted systems”

But is it really “trust” or just reliability?