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and 'intentional' act; it is more a functional rule-based act systematically reinforced (see
Chapter 4).
9.2.1 Trust Routinization
There are various forms of trust not based on real deliberation, on intentional action, on
conscious considerations of
Y
's virtues (trustworthiness) and of possible risks (Chapter 4).
Some of them are non-reflective and automatic, rule-based; due to a basic 'natural' by-default
attitude, that takes for granted the reliability of
Y
, or of infrastructures, or of social rules, etc.
This is the trustful disposition analyzed in Chapter 4, or Garfinkel's basic trust in spontaneous
and 'natural' social order.
However, there is another form of rule-based, routine trust; it
is routinized trust
. It is when
trust is initially based on careful consideration, monitoring, hesitation, a serious evaluation of
Y
's willingness and competence. Consider, for example, a trapeze artist, starting her job with a
new partner. She literally 'puts her life in the other's hands', and is very aware of his strength,
attention to detail, ability, etc. But, after some months of perfect exercises and successes, she
will fly in the air towards
Y
's hands, concentrating on her own acts, and automatically relying
on
Y
's support. This holds for any “familiarization”. Analogously, a blind man, who for the
first time has a guide-dog and has to cross the street by following it, is very perplexed, careful
and with a high perception of the risk; deciding over time to 'trust' his dog. But after they
have been together for a long time, he will stop trying to control the dog all the time, and will
follow it in a confident way. If this is the case in such risky relationships, a fortiori it is likely
to be so in less dangerous stable reliance situations.
What, at the beginning, was an explicit belief, based on reasoning and observation, and a
real decision to delegate and rely on; with successful repetitions, and exercises, becomes just
a routine plan although involving (counting on) the actions of another agent; exactly as in a
single-agent plan. What was a careful judgment has become some sort of reinforced classifier,
and a feeling of safety and efficacy: a 'somatic marker' due to the repeated experience of
success.
This routinized trust contains two form of trust: trust in the routine itself (see Chapter 4 on
Routines implying trust), and procedural trust in
Y
implemented in a trusted routine.
This is also why a trust attitude and decision is not necessarily joined to an explicit consid-
eration of risk. This idea can remain unformulated (just a logical consequence of a degree of
certainty), implicit. Risks are there but not always psychologically present, although logically
necessary (see Chapter 2).
9.3 How the Action of Trust Acquires the
Social Function
of Creating Trust
Trust (as attitude but especially as manifest action and signal) creates trust (see Chapter 6 and
(Falcone and Castelfranchi, 2001)). A virtuous circle and thus in our model a 'function' can
be created by the simple act of
X
trusts
Y
. In fact, in several ways this act can have effects that
increase the probability of its reproduction (and spreading).
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