Reputation matters but cannot substitute for direct experiential testing
Evidence
The evidence suggests that reputation is important but no substitute for experience. My information pertains primarily to the client’s perception of the subcontractor and I would not want to exclude entirely the likelihood of asymmetry here. The client firms are comparatively visible, being prominent members of the Lyons engineering community and in most cases larger than the subcontractors. My interviews suggested that they are acutely aware of their reputation for reliability. When asked how they signalled their trustworthiness to potential subcontractors, they invariably referred to this. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2606
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Reputation-without-experience failure parallels Saramago: reputation networks collapse when identity can no longer be verified, so firms must fall back on direct testing.
Related
- Reputation alone does not substitute for direct experience in inter-firm trust. (similarity 0.88)
- Reputation signals trust but experience substitutes for it (similarity 0.87)
- One can invest only in reputation, never directly in trustworthiness (similarity 0.80)
- Reputation means changing beliefs, not merely incentive-compatible behavior (similarity 0.80)
- Reputation interpretation depends on the interpreter, not the reputation holder. (similarity 0.79)
- Acting on mistaken assumptions about reputation can still yield trust (similarity 0.79)
- Assessing another’s trustworthiness requires direct or reputational knowledge (similarity 0.79)
- Reputation functions as a commodity that assures others one will honor commitments (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Reputation substitutes for truth in scientific and cognitive contexts
#contradicts(0.85) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 736 - Reputation is a public inference of disposition from background and behavior
#expands(0.80) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 822 - Trust is inductively corrigible by objective experience
#corroborates(0.80) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 359 - A trustworthy reputation can be exploited because it is imperfectly known
#complicates(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 821