Institutional constraints can make trustworthy behavior arise from aligned interests rather than care

Evidence

The encapsulated-interest account of trust is grounded in the partial alignment of the interests of the trusted with those of the truster, and it comes primarily under the second of these categories. Because many norms and social conventions are backed by sanctions, it is commonly in our interest to follow them. Hence it will often be in our interest to be trustworthy even though it would sometimes be wrong to say that this is because our interests encapsulate the interests of someone who might trust us. If you are driven by institutional constraints or societal conventions, then you have a strong incentive that does not depend on me or any ongoing relationship with me. In such a case, we can have merely congruent or compatible interests without having the least concern for each other. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 169

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes encapsulated interests (trust-based) from mere congruent interests driven by external sanctions, a key conceptual distinction in Hardin’s framework.
• XREF: Connects to Luhmann’s familiarity baseline: sanction-backed conventions reduce the need for personal trust, paralleling how institutions underwrite order independent of interpersonal familiarity.