There are tons of research on "trust" in the social psychology and HR management literature. In the engineering field, trust is usually studied in the context of human-automation or human-AI co-teaming. Again, lots of papers on that. Trust-related papers by the late Raja Parasumaran and Christopher Wickens are essential reads. Their papers are available here on RG. IMHO, the trust-related concepts and theories they introduced are relevant to any fields involving interaction with machines, systems, or AI.

First one must define what is meant by "trust". My take on that would be that trust is a state of mind, in which assumptions are treated as truth or knowledge. There are two different kinds of trust, which I would tentatively like to call "observational trust" and "informational trust".

An example for observational trust is that I see people skating on a frozen pond and trust the ice will carry me as well, or that I go on a journey with my car and I trust it will not break down. Observational trust is linked to predictability. Observational trust is that I feel I can predict how things (like machines) will behave.

An example for informational trust is that I hear that the atmosphere gets warmer and warmer and that I trust in the explanation that there is too much carbon dioxide in the air.

Note that observational trust often is partly based on informational trust (like when I have read somewhere that my car model is a very solid and reliable one).

Even though I have not yet looked up the references given by Jimmy Y. Zhong I suspect they mainly pertain to observational trust, while the original question seems to have aimed at informational trust.

I know only one publication that deals with this type of trust (which is at the heart of conspiracy theories as well as of more trust"worthy" beliefs). Unfortunately this book is in German:

https://www.narr.de/widerstreit-ist-zwecklos-16011.

But to fully answer the question: Trust is THE condition without which no change in society can be realized.

Detlef Ruschin , the works by the two late renowned scholars I mentioned does NOT relate to observational trust only, but to active interaction of human operators with automated agents and tools. Please look them up. Below is one example:

https://www.ida.liu.se/~769A09/Literature/Automation/Parasuraman,%20Wickens_2008.pdf

Also, please provide some journal references for the two kinds of trust you mentioned. Observational trust is normally tied to non-reciprocal trust in the HCI/HMI literature. As for "informational trust," it sounds like implicit or unconditional belief in reliability of a piece of information. If possible, please provide a journal reference to this kind of trust, which to my knowledge, is not at the forefront of trust-related research in the engineering fields.

Dear Jimmy Y. Zhong and Detlef Ruschin

Thank you so much for your reply and the references mentioned.

I can see a link of observational and informational trust with the concept of dependability. That cames from system engineering as a measuring tool based on integrity, security, reliability. I will take this into account in my research (if you have any other reference it will be amazing if you remind to share here).

However, when it comes to socio-technical systems (where there is an interdependency), cognitive factors should be considered. As humans are barely predictive, trust in society will always be a dynamic parameter. Actions will lead to reflection + reaction, from an individual (trustor) towards the trustee. The individual will base the judgement on his subjective perceptions of what is considerer trustworthy or not. Such perception can also change based on his personal experience and how external factors influence/impact the trustor.

Jaqueline Godoy , thank you for the kind words. Appreciated!

To comment on your opinions of "trust," it is perfectly fine to study the cognitive, social, and environmental factors in a trustor-to-trustee oriented relationship. There is a huge body of literature on that, particularly dealing with human-to-human interpersonal trust, in the psychology and business management literature. In the human factors (engineering psychology) fields, what matters more is not what trust is or how it can be defined or about kinds of cognitive mechanisms trust is associated with, but about what trust can DO for BOTH trustor and trustee. It is fine that I learned about all sorts of mental processes tied to trust, but ask yourself: "So What?" Ask yourself: "What can I DO with all these knowledge to advance my field? What can I DO to improve the current technologies beyond the current state-of-the-art. Ultimately, What can I DO to improve the current conditions of human societies?"

Note that the ideas you mentioned pertained to non-reciprocal (unidirectional) trust, that is, how one trustor perceives and trusts one trustee, a relationship that has had been demonstrated in numerous publications. What matters more for trust-related research now is "reciprocal trust," that is, how does the aforementioned unidirectional relationship work in reverse (when the trustee becomes the trustor and vice versa) and does this bidirectional relationship change over time as humans interact with each other, with machines/AI, and with the social and physical environments?

Here are just some of my thoughts. For sharing of ideas, feel free to follow and message me.