An Analysis of Trust Transitivity Taking Base Rate into Account

Trust transitivity, as trust itself, is a human mental phenomenon, so there is no such thing as objective transitivity, and trust transitivity therefore lends itself to different interpretations. Trust transitivity and trust fusion both are important elements in computational trust. This paper analyses the parameter dependence problem in trust transitivity and proposes some definitions considering the effects of base rate. In addition, it also proposes belief functions based on subjective logic to analyze trust transitivity of three specified cases with sensitive and insensitive based rate. Then it presents a quantitative analysis of the issue of exaggerated beliefs in mass hysteria based on subjective logic.