Jamal Awil

← Trust and Trustworthiness

Shared interests alone do not constitute trust. [definitional]

Note that our merely having the same interests with respect to some matter does not meet the condition of trust as encapsulated interest, although it can often give me reason to expect you to do what I would want you to do or what would serve my interests (because it simultaneously serves yours). The encapsulated-interest account does entail that the truster and the trusted have compatible interests over at least some matters, but such incentive compatibility, while necessary, is not sufficient for that account, which further requires that the trusted values the continuation of the relationship with the truster and has compatible interests at least in part for this reason. Other drivers on a highway and I enjoy incentive compatibility, and therefore each of us can be expected to try to drive on the appropriate side of the road to avoid accidents with one another. Generally, however, there is no sense in which the other drivers want me to be in the relationship of driving on the same road with them, and therefore I am not in a relationship of trust as encapsulated interest with them.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 71