* Authors of the Trustguide report explain what they mean by 'trust'
Last issue I introduced you to the TrustGuide: Final Report, just released by the U.K.’s Trustguide organization. It’s all about “trust” but, as we’ve often seen, that word can mean different things to different people at different times. So what did they mean by “trust”? The authors explain:
Last issue I introduced you to the Trustguide: Final Report, just released by the U.K.’s TrustGuide organization. It’s all about “trust” but, as we’ve often seen, that word can mean different things to different people at different times. So what did they mean by “trust”? The authors explain:
“…trust presents a semantic problem; trust is a broad construct that has numerous definitions and meanings across multiple disciplines including economics, psychology and sociology and of course, each of these views trust from its own particular perspective. Even dictionaries cannot agree; three unabridged versions (Websters, Random House, and The Oxford English Dictionary) give nine, twenty-four and eighteen definitions respectively…generally social science defines trust as ‘an attitude of positive expectation that one’s vulnerabilities will not be exploited.’
“There is no doubt that trust is of central and significant importance to commercial relationships, or indeed any relationship where there is risk, uncertainty or any degree of interdependence. In the context of ICT [Information and Communications Technology] mediated activities the concept of trust is even more complex because we are operating in an environment where perceptual information available in face-to-face, and to a lesser degree in telephone transactions, upon which we partly base our trust decisions, is entirely absent.
“It is also worth noting that in this context many people are engaging with technologies and operating within an environment that they do not understand and while this increases the level of difficulty that they may experience it also highlights the need for better education and understanding so that they can make better-informed decisions.”
I’ll reiterate the central point: trust is ‘an attitude of positive expectation that one’s vulnerabilities will not be exploited.’ The balance of the report – another 90 pages or so – speaks to the problem of inculcating trust into online transactions for commercial, governmental, educational or medical reasons.
This detailed, annotated report concludes that the group’s studies “reveal that what people want when they call for trust is a perception of confidence; the mix of secured control and trust that will help them to develop their ICT mediated relationships.”
It makes fascinating reading.
