Modern trust takes the form of trust in specialized information processing

Evidence

From this general analysis, it appears that, as far as the particular problem of trust is concerned, a change of mode will occur on the way to greater and more consciously articulated complexity. In anticipation of the following chapter, what follows from this suggestion may now be outlined. On the basis of familiarity with the everyday world, trust is principally interpersonal trust (and is therefore limited). It serves to overcome an element of uncertainty in the behaviour of other people which is experienced as the unpredictability of change in an object. In so far as the need for complexity grows, and in so far as the other person enters the picture both as alter ego and as fellow-author of this complexity and of its reduction, trust has to be extended, and the original unquestionable familiarity of the world pushed back, although it cannot be eliminated completely. It becomes as a result a new form of system trust, which implies renouncing as a conscious risk some possible further information and implies as well a wary indifference to and a continuous control of results. System trust is not only applicable to social systems but also to other people as personal systems. This change, if one looks closely at the assumptions which lie within the mode of trusting, corresponds to a change from bases of trust which are defined in primarily emotional terms, to those which are primarily performance based. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 143 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Institutionalized money trust replaces countless individual acts of personal trust; Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present; Growing complexity forces trust to shift from interpersonal to performance-based system trust — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 143 (+9 more)

Related

• Trust in experts is trust in impersonal systems, not in individuals (similarity 0.92)
• Trust expands a system’s complexity potential and buys it time (similarity 0.89)
• System trust operates independently of individuals’ personal readiness to trust (similarity 0.89)
• Trust and law evolved from a common root into differentiated mechanisms (similarity 0.89)
• Differentiated societies need more trust to reduce their greater complexity (similarity 0.89)
• Social complexity forces the shift from personal to impersonal, system-governed trust. (similarity 0.88)
• Institutionalized money trust replaces countless individual acts of personal trust (similarity 0.88)
• Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present (similarity 0.87)
• Trust reduces social complexity by replacing missing information with guaranteed security (similarity 0.86)
• System trust reduces complexity through explicit human decision processes, not naive familiarity (similarity 0.86)
• Growing social complexity increases the need for trust in the present (similarity 0.85)
• Growing complexity forces trust to shift from interpersonal to performance-based system trust (similarity 0.85)
• As societies grow more complex, trust shifts from shared worldviews to specialized competence. (similarity 0.84)
• Personal trust becomes system trust under civilized conditions (similarity 0.83)
• In Luhmann’s framework, systemic trust is the general belief that societal systems function reliably, functioning as a mechanism that reduces complexity and enables smooth social interaction, and… (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Trust in experts is trust in impersonal systems, not in individuals #corroborates (0.85)
• Growing complexity forces trust to shift from interpersonal to performance-based system trust #corroborates (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 143
• System trust operates independently of individuals’ personal readiness to trust #expands (0.70)
• System trust rests on trusting that others also trust #expands (0.65) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 261
• Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present #corroborates (0.60)
• System trust stays latent and beyond open discussion #corroborates (0.55)