System structure substitutes for unavailable information about others

Evidence

If we reconsider these hypotheses in the light of the information problem raised at the beginning of this chapter, it appears further that a problem of this kind, on which the need for trust is grounded, cannot be solved by tackling it directly. It is not possible to acquire information on the future behaviour of others except in an incomplete and unreliable fashion. But one can shift this problem into a realm where it can be mastered more effectively. One can inform oneself instead about certain structural properties of the system which one shares with others, acquire thereby the supports necessary for building trust, and so overcome the need for information which is lacking. As in many other functional contexts, structure reduces the need for information. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 183

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the core Luhmannian move tying trust to system structure and information reduction — the exact mechanism the reader needs to bridge Luhmann’s ‘system trust’ to Giddens’s ‘faceless commitments.’
• XREF: Directly parallels Giddens’s faceless commitments: trusting institutional/expert-system structures instead of gathering face-to-face information about the other party. This is the theoretical linchpin the reader’s Ishiguro thesis needs.
• DEEPTHINKING: ‘Structure reduces the need for information’ is the paradigm-shifting core of Luhmann’s whole theory of trust — dense enough to ground an entire paper, not a single point.