Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
collective and collaborative aspect and action? Of any institution not overwhelmed by fear?
Maybe because trust is the oxygen of the individual enterprise?
We hope we have explained this and/or provided the fundamental tools to explain it. We
tried to build explicit and operational models to explain the nature of the phenomenon, its
subtle relationships, to understand the (mental and interpersonal) backwater 'processes' and
'mechanisms', which are not easily observable.
What - for example - is the link between trust and '
will to fight
', that is the felt motivation
to fight for achieving our own (individual or collective) objective against perceived obstacles
and difficulties? The link is rich; on the one hand, I cannot feel sure and be convinced of
fighting without some self-trust, some positive expectation of possible success, but also some
positive evaluation of me, of my capacity and persistence, some sense of control, the feeling
that this result also depends on me (on us) (not on providence or some generous powerful
man). Moreover, if this should be a collective effort and result I have to trust the others,
their motivation, conviction, self-esteem and their trust in me. There must be reciprocation
and collaboration, no betrayal and cowardice. Moreover, I have to trust the fair rules of
the social competition, my institutions, legal conditions, of our possibility and willingness
to change them. I have to trust possible organizations in this fight, and their leaders. Even
some form of trust in the adversaries is needed (except in some form of real war). And so
on. Moreover, those trusts are not simply independent and additional; they are circular: the
one influencing the other; growing together or crowding down together. Moral dimensions
influence the institutional one, and collective atmosphere influences the individual motivation
and attitude, and so on. This is the Italian 'tragedy'.
And what is the link between the crisis of trust and the 'perdita' (loss) of hope and of a sense
of the future? As we have explained, trust (especially trust as decision, counting on, action)
entails some 'hope', necessarily, as a subcomponent: the positive expectation that those results
are possible, will hopefully become true. This is the core of hope in its broadest sense.
References
Fehr E., On the Economics and Biology of Trust, Technical Report of the Institute for the Study of Labor, no 3895,
December 2008.
Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P.J., Fischbacher, U. & Fehr, E., Nature 435: 673-676, 2005.
