Distributions of trustworthiness matter more than average levels for social structure

Evidence

Finally, note that for a real-world society in which there must be substantial variance on most social, intentional, cognitive, and other such measures, average levels of anything may be far less important than actual distributions, especially if individuals and societies have ways of selecting on the relevant dimension to found social structures on differences in trustworthiness. So, for example, if we are in a society that is hierarchically organized for various purposes, it may often be more important that the most competent or trustworthy people be in certain hierarchical roles than that people of average competence or trustworthiness be in those roles. Even in a strictly egalitarian context it may be more important that there be some highly trustworthy individuals in the system than that everyone be close to the average in trustworthiness. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 871

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s pursuit of Saramago’s blind society: the doctor’s wife as the one highly trustworthy individual who restructures order, exactly the distribution-over-average claim here.