Definitions of Trust: From Conceptual Components to the General Core - Trust Theory: A Socio-Cognitive and Computational Model - page 15

Trusting Behavior

Trusting Intention

Trusting Beliefs

Situational
Decision
to trust

System
trust

Dispositional
Trust

Belief Formation
Processes

Figure 1.2 Relationships among Trust Constructs (arrows represent relationships and mediated rela-
tionships). (Reproduced with kind permission of Springer Science+Business Media)
the trustor's decision to rely upon the action of another entity for the realization of a goal,
and the expectations upon which such a decision is based;
the relationships of dependence and power between the trustor and the trustee with respect
to the intended goal of the former.

1.5.3 McKnight: The Black Boxes of Trust
A very apt and frequently cited approach to the nature and internal dynamics of trust is
McKnight's model (McKnight and Chervany, 2001). In Figure 1.2 one can see the general
schema of this model.
This model is rather comprehensive, since it takes into account several important aspects
and some of their mutual interactions. For example, the authors are able to distinguish between
the belief-component and the decisional and behavioral aspects of trust, and to explain that the
latter depends on the former; they also recognize the role of situational and system components
in determining trust behavior. However, this is just a black-boxes model, without much insight
on what is supposed to be going on within each box. Moreover, the semantics of the arrows is
undefined and definitely non-uniform. The specific nature, organization, structure and process
of the content of the various boxes are not well specified. There is no deeper characterization
of trust beliefs in terms of 'expectations' and 'evaluations', nor is there an explicit model of
the critical factors involved in the decision process.
On the whole, this remains a 'factors' model (typical of psychology), where the authors
just capture correlations and mutual influences, but the precise nature and 'mechanics' of the
process are not defined. In sum, it is indeed important that they identify different kinds and
levels of trust (as beliefs, as intention, as behavior), and that they connect each one with the
others. However, a much more analytic , process-oriented , and relational (not only mental)
model is needed.

1.5.4 Marsh: Is a Mere Expectation Enough for Modeling Trust?
As for the growing trust literature in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence (see
Chapter 12 in this topic and 'Trust: Theory and Technology group' site (http://www.istc.
cnr.it/T3/), let us cite here only Marsh's thesis, which has been in fact the first attempt.