{
  "id": "benefit-of-the-doubt.trust",
  "term": "benefit of the doubt",
  "sense": "trust",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 16,
  "arena": "interpersonal",
  "domain": "social",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A model that treats absence of evidence as within the window of acceptable behavior, delaying the recognition that the model is wrong.",
  "folk_gloss": "Giving someone the advantage when their actions are unclear.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "model.representation",
      "window.range",
      "error.mistake",
      "trust.reliance"
    ],
    "interaction": "social",
    "novel_properties": [
      "model and trust"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Therac-25 radiation therapy machine allowed operators to proceed after minor input errors, assuming correct dosage delivery despite software flaws.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in 2019 amid mixed inflation signals, treating ambiguity as within acceptable economic bounds.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "An African elephant matriarch ignores a single calf’s alarm snort, treating it as within normal vigilance unless others join.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "benefit of the doubt"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — model and trust"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-benefit-of-the-doubt.trust"
}