Generalized distrust is coherent rational belief where generalized trust is not.

Evidence

Note a peculiar asymmetry in the possibilities for trust and distrust in such collectivities. The worst implication of the grand transition from a small-scale to a very large-scale, impersonal society might eventually, because of power differences and general cynicism, be to produce fairly generalized distrust, which can make sense in a way that generalized trust does not. Generalized distrust would not, however, block the possibilities for trust as encapsulated interest in ongoing relationships. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 813

Categorization

• XREF: This asymmetry maps onto the reader’s Saramago integration: mass blindness produces generalized distrust among strangers, yet the wife’s ongoing dyadic relationships retain their trustworthiness — distrust in general does not destroy encapsulated-interest trust in particular.
• DEEPTHINKING: The asymmetry that distrust scales up coherently while trust does not is a genuinely counterintuitive, dense claim about the epistemology of large-scale societies. It resists one-sentence summary without losing its point.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does this asymmetry explain why scandals and crises disproportionately erode confidence in institutions while leaving family and friendship trust intact?