Institutions enabling safe cooperation must precede trustworthiness, which precedes trust

Evidence

Indeed, some amount of trust must be present in any complex economic system, and it is far from inconceivable that systems with a higher level of general trust could come about. It would be risky, however, to make higher levels of trust into a cornerstone of economic reform. We may hope that trust will come about as the by-product of a good economic system (and thus make the system even better), but one would be putting the cart before the horse were one to bank on trust, solidarity and altruism as the preconditions for reform. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2773 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When transferred to the human world, the evolutionary approach might a fortiori suggest that trust would be better understood as a result rather than a precondition of cooperation. Trust would exist in societies and groups which are successful because of their ability to cooperate, and would consist in nothing more than trust in the success of previous cooperation. Cooperation could be triggered not by trust, but simply by a set of fortunate practices, random at first, and then selectively retained (with varying degrees of learning and intentionality). — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2781 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sanction-backed protection against worst risks enables wider productive cooperation; Government absorbs worst-case risks so citizens can cooperate modestly; Relying on collective trustworthiness is a collective, not merely individual, problem. (+20 more)

Related

• Cooperation is broader than trust and mostly grounded in institutions, not trust. (similarity 0.93)
• Institutions substitute for trust by securing trustworthiness coercively. (similarity 0.93)
• Trust should be a by-product of good institutions, not their precondition (similarity 0.92)
• Trust is a small-scale phenomenon that institutions must replace to enable large-scale cooperation (similarity 0.90)
• Highly cooperative societies can sustain mutual trust without religion. (similarity 0.87)
• Institutional safeguards precede trustworthiness, which precedes trust (similarity 0.85)
• Trust was the necessary condition of all political association (similarity 0.85)
• Cooperation can occur without trust when incentives align (similarity 0.84)
• Trust is a result rather than a precondition of cooperation (similarity 0.84)
• Trust requires both freedom to defect and constraints that make cooperation attractive (similarity 0.83)
• Relying on collective trustworthiness is a collective, not merely individual, problem. (similarity 0.83)
• Government absorbs worst-case risks so citizens can cooperate modestly (similarity 0.83)
• Trust enables action before another party’s cooperation is assured. (similarity 0.83)
• Institutions exist to block the destructive tail risks of interacting with the untrustworthy (similarity 0.83)
• Well-established institutions make trust unobtrusive; unsettled ones demand urgent trust (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Trust should be a by-product of good institutions, not their precondition #corroborates (0.95) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2773
• Trust is a result rather than a precondition of cooperation #expands (0.88) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2781
• Trust is a small-scale phenomenon that institutions must replace to enable large-scale cooperation #qualifies (0.85)
• Institutional and legal constraints give people strong external incentives to be trustworthy #corroborates (0.82)
• Institutions substitute for the need to trust in risky interactions #corroborates (0.80)
• Trust presupposes a structured environment supplied by the existence of other systems. #expands (0.80)
• Trustworthiness precedes and enables societal complexity #contradicts (0.80) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 683
• Cooperation can operate independently of trust #qualifies (0.75)