What is a Reputation?

A Reputation is a believed, social, meta-evaluation; it is built upon three distinct but interrelated objects:

(1) a cognitive representation, or more precisely a believed evaluation – this could be somebody’s image, but is enough that this consist of a communicated evaluation;

(2) a population object, i.e., a propagating believed evaluation; and

(3) an objective emergent property at the agent level, i.e., what the agent is believed to be.

In fact, reputation is a highly dynamic phenomenon in two distinct senses: it is subject to change, especially as an effect of corruption, errors, deception, etc.; and it emerges as an effect of a multi-level bidirectional process. Reputation is also how others know and perceive you as an individual. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation)

Simply put – Reputation is a perception based evaluation of someone which can be affected by a a vast number of factors.