Social Networks and General Trust

Formalization Using the Cusp Catastrophe Model

Abstract

In The Structure of Trust (1998), Toshio Yamagishi argues that those who trust strangers are not gullible but are able to deal with social uncertainty and opportunity costs by trusting others. His argument is called the “emancipation theory of trust.” He proved it by using mainly the methods of experimental psychology; however, some of the subsequent social researches do not support his theory. The likely explanations for the results of later researches are that Toshio Yamagishi's theory is inadequate to be applicable to actual social situations beyond laboratory situations, and that the models used in the positive researches do not formalize the theory well. In this paper, I formalize the relationship between the social environment and the level of general trust of individuals by using a mathematical model that includes network analysis and catastrophe theory. I then propose a theoretical hypothesis that synthesizes the emancipation theory of trust and some criticisms on the theory.
The model I propose is a cusp catastrophe model that shows how the level of general trust varies according to the individual's ego network and whole network properties, wherein a higher level of general trust is consistent with close committed relations, supposing that the individual belongs to multiple network domains that can include both open and close relations. Thus, I propose a comprehensive framework to theorize the inconsistent results of psychological experiments and social researches.