In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides (duplicity) and perfidy (pretense). In law, bona fides denotes the mental and moral states of honesty and conviction regarding either the truth or the falsity of a proposition, or of a body of opinion; likewise regarding either the rectitude or the depravity of a line of conduct. As a legal concept bona fides is especially important in matters of equity (see Contract).[1][2] Linguistically, in the U.S., American English usage of bona fides applies it as synonymous with credentials, professional background, and documents attesting a person's identity, which is not synonymous with bona fide occupational qualifications.[3]
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In the United States, federal and state governments are required to look for disabled, minority, and veteran business enterprises when bidding public jobs.[4]
Public wikis such as Wikipedia depend on implicitly or explicitly assuming that their users are acting in good faith. The concept appears in Wikipedia's principle of "Assume good faith" (AGF), which has been a stated guideline since 2005.[5] AGF has been described as "the first principle in the Wikipedia etiquette".[6] According to one study of users' motives for contributing to Wikipedia, "while participants have both individualistic and collaborative motives, collaborative (altruistic) motives dominate."[7]