Confidence and trust are not substitutable but mutually reinforcing social attitudes

Evidence

Moreover, we have to acknowledge that the relation between confidence and trust is not a simple zero-sum game in which the more confidence is given the less trust is required and vice versa. Such a theory would neglect the structural complexity of social systems as an intervening variable. But a social evolution which achieves increasingly complex societies may in fact generate systems which require more confidence as a prerequisite of participation and more trust as a condition of the best utilization of chances and opportunities. Confidence in the system and trust in partners are different attitudes with respect to alternatives, but they may influence each other; and in particular, a decline in confidence or an increasing difficulty in finding situations and partners which warrant trust may unleash deteriorating effects which diminish the range of activities available to the system. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1387

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s Hardin/Luhmann synthesis: confidence in the system versus trust in partners is exactly the distinction Saramago’s blindness epidemic erodes — system confidence collapses and partner trust becomes unlocatable, producing deteriorating effects. — connects to: Class confidence is an injury-trait acquired at birth, not current power — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1872
• DEFINE: Precisely distinguishes confidence (system-level, attitudes toward alternatives) from trust (partner-level), a distinction central to the theoretical project.