In psychology, trust is integral to the idea of social influence: it is easier to influence or persuade someone who is trusting. The notion of trust is increasingly adopted to predict acceptance of behaviors by others, institutions (e.g. government agencies) and objects such as machines. However, once again perception of honesty, competence and value similarity (slightly similar to benevolence) are essential. Once trust is lost, by obvious violation of one of these three determinants, it is very hard to regain trust. Thus there is a clear a-symmetry in building versus destruction of trust. Hence being and acting trustworthy should be considered the only sure way to maintain a trust level.
Increasingly much research has been done on the notion of trust and its social implications:
Barbara Misztal in her book[1] attempts to combine all notions of trust together. She points out three basic things that trust does in the lives of people: It makes social life predictable, it creates a sense of community, and it makes it easier for people to work together.
In the context of sexual trust Riki Robbins[2] describes four stages of trust:
In the context of Information Theory Ed Gerck defines and contrasts trust with social functions such as [3] power, surveillance, and accountability: