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The above described three attributions (features, properties and match) are essential for
the success of trust building. For example, imagine the task of 'taking care of a baby during
evening' (trustor:
baby's mother
; trustee:
baby-sitter
).
The
main properties
of the task might be considered:
a) to avoid dangers to the children;
b) to satisfy childrens' main physical needs;
c) to maintain a peaceful and reassuring climate by playing.
At the same time, we could appreciate several
main features
of the trustee:
1) careful and scrupulous;
2) lover of children;
3) able to maintain concentration for long time;
4) proactive;
5) impulsive, agitated and nervous.
The operation for evaluating the adequacy of the trustee to the task is mainly based on the
match between the trustee features (that become '
qualities
'or'
defects
'; see Chapter 2) and
the properties of the task. In the example, we can say that the feature number
(1)
is
good
for
satisfying the properties
(a)
and
(b)
; the feature number
(2)
is
good
for satisfying the properties
(b)
and
(c)
; the feature numbers
(3 and 4)
are
good
for satisfying the properties
(a)
and
(b)
;
the feature number
(5)
is
bad
for satisfying the properties
(a)
and
(c)
.
Both the properties of the task and the features of the trustee could be perceived from
different trustors in different ways (think about the possible discussions in real life between a
mother and a father about this). Not only this: the match could also be considered in a different
way from different personalities and point of views. In addition, both the features of an agent
and the properties of a task can be considered unchanged or not during time: it depends on the
tasks, on the trustees and the trustors' perception/representation.
It is superfluous to be reminded that this kind of trust building is just one of the many ways
in which to definine the agents' trustworthiness. Sometimes, the trustors do not know, except
at a superficial level, the tasks' properties and/or the trustees' features (like when trust building
is based on reputation or many cases of direct experiences).
The trust building based on the main inferential reasoning process, is then depending on
several different factors and on their composition. When inferring the task's properties a trustor
has to select the minimal acceptable values for the included indispensable ones (if there are
any). At the same time, the trustor has to evaluate the potential trustee's features and verify their
compatibility and satisfaction for the given task. These are complex attributions depending on
the trustor and her trust model.
Starting from this kind of attribution we will analyze the phenomenon of generalization
between similar tasks and similar agents. The essential informal 'reasoning' one should model
can be simplified as follows:
To what features/qualities of
Y
(the trustee) is its validity ascribable for the requirements
of
τ
?
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