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Socio-Cognitive Model of Trust:
Basic Ingredients
Trust
means different things, but they are systematically related one with the other. In particular
we analyze
three crucial concepts
that have been recognized and distinguished in the scientific
literature. Trust is:
Amere
mental attitude
(prediction and evaluation) towards an other agent; a simple
(pre)disposition
.
1
This mental attitude is in fact an opinion, a judgment, a preventive evaluation about specific
and relevant 'virtues' needed for relying on the potential trustee, but that might remain
separated from the actual exercise of trust.
A
decision
to rely upon the other, i.e. an
intention
to delegate and trust, which makes the
trustor 'vulnerable' (Mayer
et al.
, 1995).
This is again a mental attitude, but it is the result of a complex comparison and match
among the preventive evaluations of the different potential trustees, about the risks and
the costs, and about the applicability of these evaluations to the actual environments and
context.
A
behavior
, i.e. the intentional
act
of (en)trusting, and the consequent overt and practical
relation
between the trustor and the trustee.
This is the consequent act, behavior, of the trustor, generally coordinated and coherent with
the previous decision; and the public 'announcement' and social relation.
Trust is in general all these things together.
In order to understand this concept and its real meaning we have to analyze it, and show the
complex relations that exist between different terms and constituents.
1
Or even just a feeling, an affective disposition where those 'beliefs' are just implicit (see Chapter 5).
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