Reputation is a public inference of disposition from background and behavior
Evidence
Our opinion is thus based partly on the theory we hold of the effect of culture, class membership, family line, and the like on a person’s motivation (his disposition) and hence his behaviour. The opinion which is publicly formed and held is this person’s reputation. Our problem in essence is to infer the person’s qualities from such data. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 822
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Defines reputation as publicly formed inference from observed data to disposition — a key term; also XREF to Luhmann’s trust-as-reduction-of-complexity where reputation substitutes for direct observation.
Related
- Reputation is a public inference from visible data to hidden disposition (similarity 0.94)
- Reputation is the public inference of another’s qualities from imperfect observed data (similarity 0.93)
- Reputation means changing beliefs, not merely incentive-compatible behavior (similarity 0.85)
- Reputation-building is a deliberate investment of foregone gains (similarity 0.84)
- Reputation interpretation depends on the interpreter, not the reputation holder. (similarity 0.81)
- Assessing another’s trustworthiness requires direct or reputational knowledge (similarity 0.81)
- Reputation always retains a link to concrete, factual knowledge. (similarity 0.80)
- Acting on mistaken assumptions about reputation can still yield trust (similarity 0.80)
- Reputations work as future-oriented constraints that bind their holders (similarity 0.80)
- Reputation can inform decisions about personal associations. (similarity 0.79)
- A trustworthy reputation can be exploited because it is imperfectly known (similarity 0.79)
- Authority, reputation, and leadership are generalized motives for accepting influence (similarity 0.79)
- Reputation signals trust but experience substitutes for it (similarity 0.79)
- Reputation can substitute for truth by transferring proven reasoning to new cases uncritically (similarity 0.78)
- One can invest only in reputation, never directly in trustworthiness (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Reputation means changing beliefs, not merely incentive-compatible behavior
#qualifies(0.80) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 966 - Reputation-building is a deliberate investment of foregone gains
#expands(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1005 - A trustworthy reputation can be exploited because it is imperfectly known
#complicates(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 821 - Authority, reputation, and leadership are generalized motives for accepting influence
#expands(0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 734