Trust

Perceived Trustworthiness

A trustworthy person is someone who is worthy of your trust. For example, if you tell your boss a [Page 1574]secret, then you are trusting your boss not to reveal it. In this case, the perceived trustworthiness of your boss, at least in your eyes, is high. This notion of perceived trustworthiness has been divided into at least three dimensions: competence, benevolence, and integrity.

Competence refers to the extent to which the person being trusted knows what he or she is doing. That is, is this person prepared, capable, skilled, dedicated, professional, and knowledgeable? In the case of the boss trusted with a secret, a trustworthy boss—in terms of the competence dimension—is the kind of person who would avoid accidentally blurting out the secret during conversations with other employees. Competence, in this sense, is also known as ability or cognition-based trust.

Benevolence refers to the extent to which the person being trusted cares about and looks out for you and your interests. So in the example of telling your boss a secret, a trustworthy boss—in terms of the benevolence dimension—is the kind of person who cares about you too much to ever try to undermine you by intentionally gossiping about your secret with fellow employees. Benevolence is also known as goodwill trust, loyalty, avoiding taking excessive advantage, or affect-based trust.

Integrity refers to the extent to which the person being trusted is committed to an acceptable set of principles, such as honesty, fairness, playing by the rules, and so forth. In the case of your boss knowing your secret, a trustworthy boss—in terms of the integrity dimension—is the kind of person who would make it a point of personal honor never to reveal anything said in confidence, either by you or anyone else.

These three dimensions of perceived trustworthiness tend to be positively correlated and can sometimes be difficult to tease apart in practice, but they are conceptually distinct. For example, a boxing opponent may have high integrity (“I always play by the rules.”) but low benevolence (“I'm going to hurt you.”). Nevertheless, in many cases, people tend to think of trustworthiness as an overall umbrella concept covering all three dimensions.

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