Trust and Communication

Front matter

Anil Jacob Kunnel

Trust and Communication: Foundations of Interconnectivity

PETER LANG

Preface

I finished this theory book as my doctoral dissertation in 2017 after a year of writing and an extensive period of literature research in which I had worked through more than 600 journal articles and monographs related to trust. I was surprised that the task of building a theory turned out to be a rather pragmatic activity, one that was as much about trying to learn a certain craft as it was about creative problem-solving. It was also about strategically testing and throwing away ideas. In the end, a new theory contribution to a common scientific problem (“What is trust and how does it rely on information processing?”) needed to establish its own distinct logic but still had to be true to the existing body of research.

Most social science scholars are familiar with trust issues as they relate to the basic principles of social bonding and human connection and also have wide-ranging implications for social behavior and structure. Trust is increasingly explored in an interdisciplinary context, connecting different areas of research such as sociology or psychology. While interdisciplinarity often produces innovation, it can also be quite problematic at times. Working with different scientific belief systems can be difficult if they are not compatible on a theoretical level. In the course of writing this book, I developed a few strategies to deal with this specific problem.

First, I decided that the two primary objects of interest in this book would be communication and information processing. This rather narrow view allowed me to focus on the basic information exchanges and cognitive processes that, according to the literature, seem relevant for trust to exist.

Second, it became quite clear that there are various and sometimes contradicting definitions of trust. While the book does give an overview of these different theoretical approaches, I tried to avoid any use of the literature that would suggest a closed or definitive body of research. Since this was another theory contribution, I needed to be precise with my own choice of words and included a glossary for the terms I use in the book.

Third, I only referred to “trust” as a single entity and not to a particular type or subcategory of trust. If you are more familiar with using subcategories, the one that seems closest to the ideas presented in this book is “relational” trust, as it specifically deals with the perception of social relationships.

Fourth, I chose to organize this book in a way in which each chapter was part of one continuous, coherent argumentation. The two main inspirations for

6 Preface structuring my ideas were Robert Dubin’s Theory Building and David Deutsch’s The Fabric of Reality, both offering great principles for organizing thought. Looking back, this strategy comes with certain benefits and drawbacks. While I hope readers appreciate the fluid and essayistic style, I also hope that they can relate to my strategy of reasoning.

The primary goal of this book is to introduce and articulate a new idea, one that can be further explored, discussed or even falsified and might lead to a more nuanced empirical investigation of trust in terms of human information processing. I hope that it serves as a satisfying contribution to the existing research and that it encourages readers to incorporate theory building and strategic speculation more frequently into their scientific routine.

Anil Jacob Kunnel

Acknowledgments

This project was funded as a doctoral dissertation by the Research Training Group 1712/1, “Trust and Communication in a Digitized World,” of the German Research Foundation (DFG). It was further financially supported by the Department of Communication at the University of Minster. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Thorsten Quandt for his support and mentorship. I would like to thank Jörg Becker, who, as a member of my thesis committee, allowed me to present my work in the field of information systems and information management, and Bernd Blöbaum, who initiated the research training group. I would like to thank Edward M. Levy for editing this book with nuance and clarity. My sincere thanks also go to my fellow doctoral researchers, who allowed me to explore the issues of trust and communication in new ways. In particular, I am grateful to Laura Badura, Bettina Distel, Yasmin Erenler, Sarah Fischer, Elisabeth Giinther, Friederike Hendriks, Rachel Kowert, Ricarda Moll, Malte G. Schmidt, Franziska M. Thon, Christian Wiencierz, Florian Wintterlin, Christina Wohlers, and Nadja Zaynel for helping me shape the ideas that I have presented in this book.

Contents

PIG ULOS ee 213

Detailed List of Contents

2.1 Theoretical Assumptions on the Functionality of Trust oe 39