Formalising Trust as a Computational Concept

Abstract

Trust is a judgement of unquestionable utility — as humans we use it every day of our lives. However, trust has suffered from an imperfect understanding, a plethora of definitions, and informal use in the literature and in everyday life. It is common to say “I trust you, ” but what does that mean?

This thesis provides a clarification of trust. We present a formalism for trust which provides us with a tool for precise discussion. The formalism is implementable: it can be embedded in an artificial agent, enabling the agent to make trust-based decisions. Its applicability in the domain of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) is raised. The thesis presents a testbed populated by simple trusting agents which substantiates the utility of the formalism.

The formalism provides a step in the direction of a proper understanding and definition of human trust. A contribution of the thesis is its detailed exploration of the possibilities of future work in the area.

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Links

• https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/2010/1/Formalising trust as a computational concept.pdf

• http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.102.8227

Citation

Marsh, S.P., 1999. Formalising Trust as a Computational Concept (PhD). University of Stirling.