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Solving the Problem of Trust
... As Heimer (45) clarifies, there are two sorts of strategies that are particularly useful for facilitating more reliable interactions under conditions of vulnerability and uncertainty. The first is trusting strategies that seek to find more information about Y's competence and intentions to decrease uncertainty about Y's trustworthiness. ...
... Following Heimer's (45) and Kerasidou (48)'s identification discussed, the uncertainties of the institutions' side involved in the case of digital contact tracing are just the places where warranted institutional trust can play a role in encouraging uptake. That is to say, other things being equal, people will likely only choose to participate and cooperate with those institutions that favorably take into account their vulnerabilities and act as counted on; namely, those institutions that they think are trustworthy and can really trust. ...
For proper implementation of digital contact tracing technologies for fighting against SARS-CoV-2, participants' privacy vulnerability and the uncertainty from the relevant institutions' side could be seen as two core elements that should be dealt with, among others. In this paper, we propose to understand the current approaches for preserving privacy, referred to as privacy by legislation and privacy by technological design, as distrusting strategies that primarily work to reduce participants' vulnerability by specifying and implementing privacy standards related to this digital solution. We point out that mere distrusting strategies are insufficient for the ethically appropriate development of this digital solution, nor can they eliminate the need for institutional trust that plays an essential role in fostering voluntary support for this solution. To reach well-grounded trust in both an ethical and epistemological sense, we argue that trust in institutions concerning personal data protection in the case of digital contact tracing ought to be built on the relevant institutions' and individuals' goodwill towards the public and their competence in improving the actual effectiveness of this solution. We conclude by clarifying three dimensions, including the purpose, procedure, and outcome, where the relevant trustees can work to signal and justify their intentions and increase their trustworthiness via an effective communication strategy. Given the complementary qualities shown by the distrusting and trusting strategies, a combined strategy including both sorts seems closer to what we expect from the responsible implementation of this digital solution, which could also improve the effectiveness of this institutional response.
... The systematic study of misanthropy, the lack of trust in humanity, has proliferated over the last three decades. Scholars generally agree that feelings of misanthropy have increased in recent years in the United States (Heimer 2001;Paxton 1999;Putnam 2000) and in other countries (Berggren and Bjørnskov 2011;Melgar et al. 2013;Smith 1997). Two prominent tracks of misanthropy research populate the literature. 1 One track features a debate on whether Blacks and Hispanics 2 are more misanthropic, that is, less trusting, than Whites. ...
The systematic study of misanthropy, the lack of trust in humanity, has proliferated over the last 30 years. One prominent line of research details racial and ethnic disparities in levels of misanthropy, but pays little attention to the role of religiosity, while another focuses attention on religiosity and its impact on levels of misanthropy, with only scant attention to the role of race and ethnicity. Little attempt has been made to synthesize these two strands of literature to address an important unanswered question: Does the association between religiosity and misanthropy vary by racial and ethnic group? To answer this question, we pooled data from the General Social Survey (GSS, 2000–2018). Among other things, we find stark racial differences between Blacks and Whites in terms of the effect of religiosity on misanthropy. Blacks and Latinos who attend religious services weekly (social religiosity) have significantly higher levels of misanthropy than others, while Whites who attend weekly services are less likely to be misanthropic. An important takeaway is that service attendance (a type of social capital) is associated with feelings of misanthropy for all groups (albeit in opposite directions for Blacks and Latinos versus Whites), rather than personal acts of prayer (individual religiosity). When it comes to misanthropy, we conclude that religion works differently for minorities compared with Whites. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.
... To conclude, we need trust, but it is not all we need: trustworthy institutions are also required. Following Heimer's (2001) line of argumentation, we propose that those institutions that treat clients with dignity and decency and protect them from various vulnerabilities and risks in life enhance trust, strengthen self-confidence, and fortify capacity-building. A quotation from Standing (2020: 3) brings these ideas closer to the debate on basic income: 'A basic income would also strengthen social solidarity, including human relations: it would be an expression that we all are part of a national community, sharing the benefits of the national public wealth created over our collective history'. ...
... Besides positive expectations and willingness, many argue that "vulnerability"-awareness of risk, or the possibility of betrayal/failure-is an important defining feature of trust (e.g. Gambetta, 2000;Heimer, 2001;Sztompka, 1999). In these formulations, trust is deliberate (i.e. ...
Drawing on the dual process framework from social and cognitive psychology, this paper reconciles two distinct conceptualizations of trust prevalent in the literature: “rational” calculative and irrational “affective” or normative. After critically reviewing previous attempts at reconciliation between these distinctions, we argue that the notion of trust as “reliance” is the higher order category of which “deliberate trust” and “intuitive faith” are subtypes. Our revised approach problematizes the conflation of epistemic uncertainty with phenomenological uncertainty while providing sound footing for a key sociological insight: that reliance on the routine social order is both the cognitive default and based on substantial practical evidence. We develop two broad suggestions for future research from these implications: (1) sociological research should examine the role of intuitive faith—as opposed to deliberate trust—in late modern societies, and (2) analysts should challenge the role of deliberate trust as the “modal” form of reliance in contemporary research.
... Por nombrar algunos, se explicitan el caso de la Polar, multitienda en la que se repactaron unilateralmente deudas con los clientes a intereses abusivos, la colusión de las farmacias (en la que las tres cadenas principales, con aproximadamente un 85% del mercado se coludieron para subor artificialmente los precios de remedios) y la colusión de los pollos (en la que 3 productoras de pollo, que tienen la mayoría de la cuota de mercado a nivel nacional, se coludieron igualmente para subir artificialmente el precio del pollo). Si tomamos en cuenta que la confianza se entiende como un mecanismo que reduce la complejidad de los sistemas y por tanto baja los niveles de percepción de riesgo (Gambetta, 1988;Luhmann, 1979), es entonces una manera de lidiar con la incertidumbre y la vulnerabilidad (Child, 2001;Heimer, 2001). Como punto de partida, se toma la definición de Gambetta, quien señala que "la confianza (o, simétricamente, la desconfianza) es un nivel particular de probabilidad subjetiva con la que un agente estima que otro agente o grupo de agentes realizará una acción particular, antes de que el agente pueda monitorear dicha acción y en un contexto en el que afecte sus propias acciones" (1988, p. 217) . ...
Reconfiguraciones organizacionales en tiempos de pandemia: Una mirada desde la comunicación. 15-18 de junio, 2021 Modalidad virtual MEMORIA
... Vulnerability has to do with the citizen's perceptions of how well equipped she is to deal with the possible effects of undesirable outcomes, be they substantive (such as not receiving a benefit) or affective (lack of respect or recognition, stigmatization, etc.). Heimer [60] argues that vulnerability is an expression of the amount of risk incurred by engaging in a particular action. However, this seems to conflate risk (the likelihood that something happens combined with the consequences of it happening) [66] and vulnerability, which I would argue should be kept separate. ...
This paper contributes to e-government research by presenting a conceptual framework of the key-features of the situational context that informs citizens approaches to bureaucratic encounters with government (BEs). The framework is developed through a qualitative hermeneutic approach involving several different literatures. The framework identifies five basic features of the citizen’s situation that may affect how citizens approach BE’s: 1) Consequences: the possible outcomes of the situation 2) Vulnerability: how well equipped is the citizen to deal with the possible outcomes. 3) Familiarity: how much can the citizen draw on previous experiences with similar situations. 4) Complexity: how complex does the citizen perceive her situation to be. 5) Urgency: what time-constraints are there on the citizen getting the issues resolved.The framework can be a useful tool for analysing citizens’ strategies concerning the bureaucratic encounters and their use of self-service systems and the effects thereof for both citizens and authorities. In addition, the framework can be used by researchers and practitioners alike to analyse self-service-systems and multi-channel strategies and service designs to identify how they take the different features of the situation into account.KeywordsCitizen–government interactionDigitalizationTheory-buildingDigital servicesSituation
... A frequently stated argument holds that contemporary strategies in problems of trust are more likely to be those that reduce actors' vulnerability [1,9,11]Accordingly it is assumed that in role differentiated and heterogeneous societies mechanisms that generate trust across neighborhoods and identities, such as various forms of regulations, the justice system, or the use of insurance, will be the more important and prevailing. While there is some truth in this argument, it is not quite the position taken here. ...
... In this understanding, something needs to be at stake for the trustor because trusting somebody always includes the transfer of control. Then vulnerability increases with the proportion of maximal gain (Heimer, 1999). In contrast, other authors belaud subjective perception of vulnerability and subjective experience of the trust representing the internal response to incentive structure. ...
The topic of violence against women providing sexual services on the streets is
discussed very little in the context of Slovakia. There are a lot of prejudices among
the public, so as professionals. One of them is that this woman can't be raped. On
the contrary, this minority group of women experienced all types of violence
whether in intimate or clients relationships. They are daily in risky situations. The
study aimed to find out what strategies, private or public, women working in street
sexbusiness used to prevent, reduce, and terminate violence. Nine qualitative
interviews were conducted. The respondents were women - clients of a
nongovernmental organization providing services for injecting drug users or people
involved in street sexbusiness. Women talked more often about violence from
clients than about violence in an intimate relationship. Besides physical assaults,
they mentioned psychological violence mostly in an intimate relationship - threats,
jealousy, and panic disorder as a consequence of psychological violence. Regarding
strategies, they used safety planning most often. The common reaction to the
violence at work was to succumb to the perpetrator. They rarely used public non�formal strategies, they didn ́t trust friends or relatives. They didn ́t form a peer
(community) background. They used very few formal public strategies, most of
them didn't trust the police, few gave the credit to the organization, which provided
community services. Research reflects the social environment of women working
in street sexbusiness regarding institutions, which are supposed to protect them
against violence, and also empowers and supports them in talking about violence,
which contributes to knowledge and principles of community psychology.
... In this understanding, something needs to be at stake for the trustor because trusting somebody always includes the transfer of control. Then vulnerability increases with the proportion of maximal gain (Heimer, 1999). In contrast, other authors belaud subjective perception of vulnerability and subjective experience of the trust representing the internal response to incentive structure. ...
Trust and the notion of trust had been widely discussed not only in the field of psychology but also across many other disciplines. Our research was mainly focused on the vulnerability and the meaning of the word "trust". The goal was to compare two groups of participants (with the highest and lowest scores of vulnerability) and their free associations to the stimulus word "trust". A total of 600 participants was reduced by calculating the average score obtained by the Psychological Vulnerability Scale (PVS). The group of low vulnerability scores (LV, n= 78) and high vulnerability scores (HV, n= 83) was defined by the average score and standard deviation. Five primary domains, twelve categories, and two subcategories emerged from the analysis. The findings imply that participants higher in vulnerability associated trust mainly in terms of positive affectivity and with their close family. Also, people with higher vulnerability scores tended to perceive trust within the form of traits like kindness, tenderheartedness, care, and favor, which did not occur in the low-vulnerability group. The phenomenon of trust is still not examined sufficiently especially as far as qualitative research is concerned. Therefore, our study offers an insight into what people associate with trust and how they differ based on their level of vulnerability.
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