Love does not obviously involve trust and usually precedes rather than follows it.

Evidence

Annette Baier (1985, 58) says that “it is fairly obvious that love … involves trust,” but this is not obvious at all. Many people have had the doleful experience of deeply loving someone they did not trust. The pattern of “misplaced” love in some cases recalls a spoof of the standard theme of country and western songs: “I can’t love you, baby, if you won’t leave me.” Even reciprocal love need not require extensive trust. It seems likely that falling in love leads to experience that justifies trust, so that love commonly begets trust rather than the other way around. Loving typically gives one a strong motive for trustworthiness, which should beget trust from the beloved, although, sadly, this need not always happen. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 655

Categorization

• XREF: Directly counters a commonsense equation of love with trust — pairs with the reverse-sequencing point about love begetting trust rather than requiring it. Useful ammunition against surface-level readings that assume affection implies reliability. — connects to: Weakened marriage security made romantic love both more sought and more distrusted — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 350
• CANDY: The ‘I can’t love you, baby, if you won’t leave me’ spoof is a fun, tweetable line on misplaced love.