Abstract
In this paper we raise the question whether technological artifacts can
properly speaking be trusted or said to be trustworthy. First, we set out some prevalent
accounts of trust and trustworthiness and explain how they compare with the
engineer’s notion of reliability. We distinguish between pure rational-choice accounts
of trust, which do not differ in principle from mere judgments of reliability, and what
we call "motivation-attributing" accounts of trust, which attribute specific motivations
to trustworthy entities. Then we consider some examples of technological entities that
are, at first glance, best suited to serve as the objects of trust: intelligent systems that
interact with users, and complex socio-technical systems. We conclude that the
motivation-attributing concept of trustworthiness cannot be straightforwardly applied
to these entities. Any applicable notion of trustworthy technology would have to
depart significantly from the full-blown notion of trustworthiness associated with
interpersonal trust.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 429-444 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Knowledge, Technology & Policy |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 3-4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |