Trust in characteristics

Many papers argue that one user should be able to express two kinds of trust in other users: Trust in characteristics and Trust in ability to express valuable trust statements.

Trust in characteristics is the usual trust, for example, on eBay is the evaluation of the other user as a buyer, and in Epinions is the evaluation of the other user about her ability to provide useful reviews and ratings. This is the trust statement that is usually asked to users of systems.

See also Trust in ability to express valuable trust statements.