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the goal in the first place, i.e. on whether to engage in action
α
(that would make
X
dependent
upon
Y
for
P
) or not.
The link between delegation and trust is deep and should not be underestimated: dele-
gation necessarily requires some trust, and trust as decision and action is essentially about
delegation. This also means that
trust implies that X has not complete power and control on
the agent/process they are relying and counting upon
. Trust is a case of limited power, of
'dependence' on someone or something else. Although the notion of 'reliance' and 'reliable'
is present in several of the definitions analyzed by Castaldo, the theory of this strange relation,
and its
active
aspect of deciding to depend, deciding to count on, to invest, to delegate, is not
yet well developed in the literature on trust. For instance, several authors consider a crucial and
necessary aspect of trust the fact that while relying on the behavior of another person we take
a risk because of the lack or limit of '
controllability'
and because the other's behavior
cannot
be under coercion
, so that our expectation on the other's actions cannot be fully certain. This
intuition is correct, and it just follows from our previous analysis. In any act of
trusting in Y
there is some
quid
delegated to another agent
Y
, and, especially when this agent is viewed as
purposive, goal-oriented (be it Nature, a tool, an animal, or a person), the delegated process
that consists of
Y
's performance is
beyond our direct control
.
Y
has some autonomy, some
internal degree of freedom
, and also for this - not only for external interferences - it is not
fully predictable and reliable.
When
Y
is an autonomous cognitive agent this
perceived
degree of freedom and autonomy
mainly consists in
Y
's choice:
Y
can
decide
to do or not to do the expected action. With this
kind of agent (i.e. within the domain of social trust), we in fact trust
Y
for deciding and be
willing to do what
Y
'has to' do (for us) - even against possible conflicting goals that may
arise for
Y
at the very moment of the expected performance. In other words, we trust (in)
Y
's
motivation, decision, and intention.
This characteristic feature of social trust strictly derives from the more basic notion of trust
as involving reliance upon some non-directly controlled process and agent, on the perception
of this lack of controllability, and its associated risk; on the distinction between trust 'in'
Y
,
and global trust; and, in the end, on the very idea of 'delegation', as the decision to count upon
such a process/agent for the pursuit of my own goal. If I have not decided to depend on this, I
would have no reason to care for any non-controllability of such a process or agent.
Finally, as we briefly mentioned before, aside from
Competence
and
Willingness
, there is a
third dimension in evaluating the trustworthiness of
Y
:
Y
must be perceived as non threatening
(passive trust), i.e.
harmless
. There is no danger to be expected from
Y
's side; it is 'safe'
to rely on
Y
and to restrain from fully monitoring
Y
's conduct (see Section 2.4 for more
details).
In a sense 'feeling safe' could be taken as the basic nucleus of trust in and by itself, seemingly
without any additional component (
passive trust
- see note 3). However, looking more carefully
we can identify other core components. Clearly positive
evaluations
and
expectations
(beliefs)
are there and play a role in my feeling of safety. If I do not worry and do not suspect any harm
from you, this means that I evaluate you positively (in the sense that you are 'good for me', not
to be avoided, at least harmless), since not being harmed is one of my goals. I can be relaxed
(as for you) and this is also pleasant to me. Moreover, this feeling/belief is an expectation
about you: I do not expect damage from you, and this constitutes a passive, weak form of
positive expectation. Perhaps I do not expect that you will actively help me realize a goal of
mine that I am pursuing; but at least I expect that you will not compromise a goal that I have
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