The Creation of Particularized Trust

Abstract

In this chapter I analyze how particularized trust is created inside networks, focusing my attention on voluntary associations. Particularized trust, that is, trust in known people, constitutes an example of how social capital can be created as a by-product of other activities. Here I propose a general mechanism to explain how particularized trust is created as a by-product. This mechanism involves the disclosure of private information within associations. However, I also identify difficulties with this method of creating particularized trust. One concerns the uncertainty of the information thus acquired, another is the possibility of misjudging this information due to certain cognitive processes, and a third the reliability of the information obtained. Therefore, this is a chapter about the creation of a particular form of trust but also, as it was derived from chapter 2, about the creation of social capital inside associations. As we know, this is so because the relations of trust created inside associations are sources of obligations of reciprocity, that is, of social capital. I assume in this chapter that the relations of trust created between members of a given association are a quasi automatic source of obligations of reciprocity (and, therefore, of social capital), through the operation of at least the two mechanisms presented in chapter 2: reputation and self-esteem.