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'causal internal attribution' relative to its (good) working. In general:
if I trust an entity E
(of any kind) I'm always ascribing to E some internal properties, some virtues, on which the
possible success depends
, and I depend on these 'virtues'.
This 'internal attribution' foundation of trust explains why it is trivial and false that the
failure of
Y
necessarily produces a decrement of
X
's trust in
Y
, and a success of
Y
should
necessarily increase or cannot reduce
X
's trust in
Y
. The effect of the failure or of the success
again depends on its 'attribution': How much and for which aspect is it ascribed to
Y
?For
which aspect is it ascribed to an external (from
Y
) circumstance? Only internal attribution to
Y
affects trust
in
Y
, since trust holds upon this; while an external attribution to
C
(say the
environment, the infrastructure, etc.) obviously affects the trust in
C
(of course, it is really
important also to understand the relation and correlation between
Y
and
C
) (see Chapter 6 for
more details).
Mistrust and diffidence (Chapter 4) are
negative
forms of trust. They too entail an internal
causal attribution of the inadequate or bad behavior of
Y
. It is for some internal 'virtue' that
Y
is poor or harmful; there is not simply something lacking such that I do not trust
Y
(enough);
but, positively, I attribute to
Y
some 'defect'; I think something bad of him.
Trustasan
External Goal
on
Y
When
X
trusts
Y
,an
external goal
is put on
Y
(Castelfranchi, 2000c). Moreover,
Y
is assumed
to respond to this impinging goal:
(i) either, with an
internalization
of it; that is by an internal goal, copied by the external one;
by 'goal adoption' (or goal-adhesion) (Section 2.8); of course, this is possible only if
Y
is
an intentional agent;
(ii) or with some internal mediator of the external function; some 'mechanism', some 'func-
tioning' satisfying/performing that function.
2.2.8 Trust, Positive Evaluation and Positive Expectation
Trust is not Reducible to a Positive Evaluation
That
trust
is a
positive evaluation
is also confirmed by the fact that expressing trust towards
Y
is a way of
appreciating Y
. To express trust in
Y
is an indirect/implicit positive evaluation
act (even a
compliment
) towards him; and this can be highly appreciated, and is one of the
reasons for
reciprocation
(Chapter 8).
However, (as we will see) trust cannot be reduced to a positive evaluation. This is so for
two main reasons. First of all, because there is much more than evaluations in trust mental
attitude: there are also other kinds of beliefs, for example, expectations. Second, a positive
valuation about
Y
is not
per se
trust in
Y
, or a trust attitude towards
Y
. It is only a possibility
and a
potential
for trust. Only relatively to a possible dependence of
X
on
Y
, and to a
possible
delegation/counting of
X
on
Y
, that evaluative beliefs become a trust attitude.
Given
X
's goal that
Y
bring it about that
g
X
⊆
p
, as a means for
X
's achieving
g
X
, the beliefs
about
Y
's
qualities
for this acquire the color of trust.
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