Relative Trustworthiness

We present a method for trust scenarios with more than one trustee, where sets of trustees are ordered in a relation of relative trustworthiness. We show how a priority structure implicit in a trust relation can be made fully explicit by means of a lattice and how a system of default expectations arises from a systematic interpretation. The default structure lends itself to formal interpretation, but is independent of a particular logical language. The theory is designed to directly extend the analysis of the concept of trust given by Andrew Jones.