On the concept of trust

Considerable diversity is exhibited by current definitions of the concept of trust. This paper argues that there may nevertheless be an identifiable core to the concept. On the basis of an analysis of five scenarios in which some agent x trusts some other agent y, it is suggested that two beliefs-here called the 'rule-belief' and the 'conformity-belief'- form the core of the trusting attitude. The informal account of trust presented here identifies the kinds of modalities that would figure in a modal-logical specification of the conditions under which one agent can be said to trust another. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.