ABSTRACT
Over the centuries, a lot of thought has gone into trustworthiness as a theoretical concept. This chapter reviews the most important approaches to the study of trustworthiness, and how it has been conceptualized. Then we will present a series of basic conditions and premises regarding the study of abstract social phenomena such as trustworthiness, which an EM/CA approach to the study of trust and related concepts must encompass. In the classical period, ethos was a rather encompassing concept. It could include coming from a good family, as well as the entire moral history of the speaker. There has been substantial debate regarding how best to define ethos. The main distinctions concern the location of ethos, its stability and whether it is a descriptive or a normative concept. In psychology, much as in the social sciences, much of the research focus has been on trust rather than on trustworthiness.
