Symbols provide a feedback loop regulating continued trust.

Evidence

Because reality is too complex for actual control, trust is kept under control with the aid of the implications provided by symbols. This is supported by a crudely simplified framework of indices as a form of feedback loop carrying messages about whether or not the continuance of trust is justified. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 162

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how symbolically mediated ‘indices’ function as a low-complexity feedback loop — central to Luhmann’s mechanism of trust-based complexity reduction.
• XREF: connects to: Status seekers choose symbols for their audience and adjust them based on feedback. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 229