Interest-based trust is easier to assess than morals or norms trust

Evidence

Although valuations of various things are idiosyncratic, we are apt to be fairly adept at assessing someone’s interests in many things; thus we might learn to assess trustworthiness that is grounded in the potential trusted’s encapsulation of our interests. Trust that is grounded in moral commitments, norms, or bald commitments may be much less generalizable and therefore less easily assessed. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 531

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the Saramago analysis: once sight fails, the wife cannot assess others’ interests as before, and norms-based trust is precisely what the Hobbesian scramble reveals as non-generalizable.