Trust And Credibility Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The issue of trust gained greater attention with the culturalist turn of sociology, when soft variables and intangibles began to receive more attention. Central for social interaction, trust reduces complexity and therefore facilitates human capacity to act.

Trust is relational in nature—at least one participant in a trust relationship believes that individual interests are being considered. Mutual interdependence and the knowledge of reciprocal trustworthiness act as building blocks for a trust relation. Credibility, built through a patterns and perceived notions of someone’s previous actions, can also lead to trust. The more someone follows up on words or promises, the greater credibility this person gains for future action. While credibility is based at least on some past action, trust may not have to be.

Trust is vested in people and their actions or capacities, not in objects or natural events. It evolves, especially, with one’s future lack of control or uncertainty surrounding human created events. Trust is defined in different ways: Anticipatory trust means that people consider others’ interests when acting. Responsive trust implies the expectation of a positive response when trust is placed in others. Evocative trust signifies acting on the belief that trust is reciprocal.

Trusting others involves risk—others may not act according to expectations and adverse effects can occur. Trust usually targets individuals with whom one has direct contact and is often established along lines of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, or wealth. Trust may also emerge with social groups and social roles (e.g., mother, friend, priest, doctor of medicine) and also through organizations and institutions. At the most abstract, trust can be put in the qualities of a particular social system or a regime. These categories can mix and affect one another—personal trust can thus promote increased positional or institutional trust.

It is easier to build distrust than trust, and repairing the damage of a single instance of misplaced trust, or reestablishing trust, requires much more effort. A distinction exists between distrust and lack of trust, as distrust can also be protective and still allow for some cooperation.

Humans estimate the trustworthiness of others before placing trust in them, basing the estimate on reputation, or past behavior; performance, or present behavior and results; and appearance, or external features that do or do not express trustworthiness—especially personality, identity, and status. Relationships, familiarity, and visibility are also important factors. In addition, the external setting of an action influences trust, such as the degree of accountability or one’s precommitments.

Structural conditions conducive to building trust are (1) a normative order for society, which increases incentives for a positive conduct conducive to trust; (2) stability of the social order, which creates reference points for social conduct and feelings of security; (3) transparency of the social order and operational rules, which induces feelings of predictability and assurance; (4) familiarity of surroundings, which builds certainty and comfort; and (5) accountability of people and institutions, which serves as insurance for backup options.

When stakes and uncertainty are high and trustworthiness cannot be estimated, some organizational or institutional mechanisms can enable trust. Yet, trust can also develop when uncertainty decreases, for example via repeated interaction.

Bibliography:

Cook, Karen S., Russell Hardin, and Margaret Levi. Cooperation without Trust? New York: Russell Sage, 2005.
Schweer, Martin K.W., and Barbara Thies. “Vertrauen durch Glaubwürdigkeit-Möglichkeiten der (Wieder-)Gewinnung von Vertrauen aus psychologischer Perspektive.” In Vertrauen und Glaubwürdigkeit: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven, edited by Beatrice Dernbach and Michael Meyer.Wiesbaden, Ger:VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005.
Sztompka, Piotr. Trust: A Sociological Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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