A theoretical conceptualization for overtrust

Abstract

This paper presents and develops a theoretical basis for understanding overtrust. Overtrust describes a phenomenon in which an individual’s calibration of trust does not match the true risk associated with a situation and/or trustee. This paper describes trust in terms of risk and an associated risk equation. The risk equation is then used to decompose overtrust to investigate the factors that influence overtrust. We conclude with a discussion of potential experiments focused on evaluating these theoretical ideas and future work.