A buyer’s trust of a salesman is reducible to a subjective probability p

Evidence

I now suppose that the customer is unsure whether the salesman is trustworthy or untrustworthy, and that he imputes a (subjective) probability p to the salesman being honest. I want to think of p as being the ‘reputation’ the salesman has for honest dealing. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 911

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines trust mathematically as a subjective probability imputed to the counterparty — exactly the kind of precise ‘observability’ variable the Luhmann reading needs.
• XREF: This probability-of-honesty framing parallels Luhmann’s familiarity/trust distinction and Hardin’s encapsulated-interest account in the reader’s analytical integration.