Jonas Heide Smiths notesblog

Reportedly, the Danish RKI register for people who cannot pay their bills get a least one request a week from someone who wants to be added to their files (article in Danish).
The applicants do not trust their future selves to resist the temptation of a quick loan.
I find this deep skepticism towards one’s future [...]

I rambled a bit below on player rating systems. On that note we have a (much more) interesting new article on Game Research about Trust, Cooperation, and Reputation in Massively Multiplayer Online Games by Tony Tulathimutte.
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Peer-2-peer rating systems work quite well in systems like eBay and Slashdot.
But they do so because User A has no real interest in User B’s future. In brief: A has no real reason to be dishonest.
Not so for online gamers. Here a rating can be used strategically. You may get angry with someone, but you [...]

I find signalling (as in signalling theory) quite fascinating. Basically, individuals sometimes want to communicate their possession of a certain trait (in the broadest sense).

Anyway, the other day I called my bank to have my credit card re-activated (don’t ask).
I give my name, state the problem and ask the lady to fix things. She [...]

In my master’s thesis on The Architectures of Trust (2MB) I discussed techniques for establishing trust among strangers in online communities such as virtual worlds (around page 61). I said things like:
Another possibility is to give users access to the implicit verdicts of friends. Systems that employ buddy lists (see Figure 3) may let users [...]