Explaining trust requires understanding the conditions of cooperation

Evidence

In ending, I want to reiterate four points. Firstly, evolutionary process must be distinguished from its consequences; differential survival in the past does not necessarily mean social competition now. Secondly, in biology the outcome of differential survival is the ‘interest’, and no motive is required for that interest to be maximized by a given course of action. Thirdly, at least three explanations for the evolution of cooperation can be offered. Finally, the conditions in which cooperative behaviour occurs, and those in which it does not, need to be properly explored and understood. When that is done we may be able to explain the origins of trust. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 463

Categorization

• XREF: The core complication — evolved cooperation may serve past rather than present social competition — challenges Hardin’s model, which treats observable constraint as sustaining present trust.