Conceptualizing Trustworthiness and Trust in Communications
Gerhard P. Fettweis, Patricia Grünberg, Tim Hentschel, Stefan Köpsell
TL;DR
The paper differentiates trust (subjective reliance) from trustworthiness (objective system properties) and proposes a trustworthiness-by-design framework for human–digital interactions in 6G/Tactile Internet contexts. It grounds the approach in social science foundations like the Mayer ABI model and extends them into a technical model that links measurable trustworthiness characteristics (TCs) with user decisions, introducing mediators and reputation mechanisms to manage complexity. While empirical evaluation challenges remain, the authors outline plans to validate that increasing objective TCs shifts trust decisions toward more trustworthy systems, using case examples from mobile devices and vehicle safety features. The work emphasizes auditability and reputational governance as essential components for deploying trustworthy, scalable, and user-centered communications in future networks.
Abstract
Trustworthiness and trust are basic factors in common societies that allow us to interact and enjoy being in crowds without fear. As robotic devices start percolating into our daily lives they must behave as fully trustworthy objects, such that humans accept them just as we trust interacting with other people in our daily lives. How can we learn from system models and findings from social sciences and how can such learnings be translated into requirements for future technical solutions? We present a novel holistic approach on how to tackle trustworthiness systematically in the context of communications. We propose a first attempt to incorporate objective system properties and subjective beliefs to establish trustworthiness-based trust, in particular in the context of the future Tactile Internet connecting robotic devices. A particular focus is on the underlying communications technology.