Bootstrapping trust evaluations through stereotypes

In open, dynamic multi-agent systems, agents may form short-term ad-hoc groups, such as coalitions, in order to meet their goals. Trust and reputation are crucial concepts in these environments, as agents must rely on their peers to perform as expected, and learn to avoid untrustworthy partners. However, ad-hoc groups introduce issues which impede the formation of trust relationships. For example, they may be short-lived, precluding agents from gaining the necessary experiences to make an accurate trust evaluation. This paper describes a new approach, inspired by theories of human organisational behaviour, whereby agents generalise their experiences with known partners as stereotypes and apply these when evaluating new and unknown partners. We show how this approach can complement existing state of the art trust models, and enhance the confidence in the evaluations that can be made about trustees when direct and reputational information is lacking or limited.