Reputation Confers Advantage

Abstract

AbstractReputation is a special sort of expectation, based on what the person harbouring the expectation takes to be ‘common knowledge’ about some other person or thing. Unlike a stereotype, a reputation is specific to a particular person or thing. Reputation is another source of advantage, and insofar as reputations are (deservedly or not) ‘sticky’ that advantage is perpetuated over time. Reputations might be of various types: for possessing power; for holding status positions; for enjoying network advantage; or for reliability and trustworthiness. The latter sort of reputational advantage in particular can be exacerbated, insofar as people (perfectly rationally) construct their advantage-conferring networks out of those whom they can trust, excluding from them persons they cannot (or merely do not know whether they can) trust.