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Trust as an Action: About the Overrated Significance of Trust in Information Sources in a Digitized World

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Trust and Communication in a Digitized World

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that trust, which actually informs the actions of people, can only be identified under specific preconditions and is relevant less often than it appears to be by the frequent and manifold use of the term. Using online information as an example, it is pointed out, that, when defining trust with a focus on the trusting action, trust can only apply to one specific, pre-selected information source. Therefore, it is then argued, that trust is an especially rare and special phenomenon with information sources on the Internet.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is also true for some works in philosophy and political science, which shares some views of sociological research.

  2. 2.

    The male form is used in the following for reasons of simplicity, but this is a reference to both sexes.

  3. 3.

    This is why only decisions and actions can be conceptualized as consequences of trust but not attitudes or opinions, because only actions and decisions are associated with risks (see above, Luhmann 2000, p. 100).

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  1. University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Sarah Westphal & Bernd Blöbaum

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  1. Sarah Westphal
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  2. Bernd Blöbaum
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Correspondence to Sarah Westphal .

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  1. University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Bernd Blöbaum

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Westphal, S., Blöbaum, B. (2016). Trust as an Action: About the Overrated Significance of Trust in Information Sources in a Digitized World. In: Blöbaum, B. (eds) Trust and Communication in a Digitized World. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28059-2_6

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