Overt risk calculation can undermine the trust it is meant to secure

Evidence

Sociologists writing on trust are generally concerned with social mechanisms that generate trust (for example, see Luhmann 1980, 95). Luhmann supposes that the structure of trust relations requires that calculation of risk remain latent. Yet contractual relations may require that such calculation be overt and present and may therefore introduce an atmosphere unfavorable to trust. When such interdependence already exists, so that the risks are openly known to all without need of specific present discussion, mutual understanding and trust may be enhanced (Luhmann 1980, 36). — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 588

Categorization

• XREF: The core tension Hardin strikes against Luhmann: latent risk-calculation under trust versus overt calculation under contract. Feeds directly into the blindness->trust analysis since Saramago’s plague removes the observability Luhmann’s familiarity needs. — connects to: Securing a good means protecting it, not maximizing its likelihood — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 372
• DEFINE: Defines Luhmann’s position: trust requires that risk calculation stay latent, so formalizing it introduces an unfavorable atmosphere.