Computational trust and reputation models for open multi-agent systems: a review

Abstract

In open environments, agents depend on reputation and trust mechanisms to evaluate the behavior of potential partners. The scientific research in this field has considerably increased, and in fact, reputation and trust mechanisms have been already considered a key elements in the design of multi-agent systems. In this paper we provide a survey that, far from being exhaustive, intends to show the most representative models that currently exist in the literature. For this enterprise we consider several dimensions of analysis that appeared in three existing surveys, and provide new dimensions that can be complementary to the existing ones and that have not been treated directly. Moreover, besides showing the original classification that each one of the surveys provide, we also classify models that where not taken into account by the original surveys. The paper illustrates the proliferation in the past few years of models that follow a more cognitive approach, in which trust and reputation representation as mental attitudes is as important as the final values of trust and reputation. Furthermore, we provide an objective definition of trust, based on Castelfranchi's idea that trust implies a decision to rely on someone.