Trust forms sequentially by reducing social complexity over discrete steps

Evidence

The consolidation of trust therefore constitutes an advantageous, but also a heavily presuppositional reformulation for the primordial problem of social order, the existence of a free alter ego. Instead of arming oneself against the unpredictability of the other person in the full complexity of all possibilities, one can seek to reduce complexity by concentrating on the creation and maintenance of mutual trust, and engage in more meaningful action in respect of a problem now more narrowly defined. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 247 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Once again these analyses illuminate in the clearest possible way what constitutes the background to all trust – the problem of complexity. By means of trust, the truster unburdens himself of complexity which he cannot sustain. Anyone who wishes to abuse his trust must take this complexity upon himself. He will have to burden himself with complex demands on behaviour, to ensure the most wide-ranging command of the relevant information and complete control of the information available to the truster, with the result that he himself will be in danger of collapsing under the pressure of complexity. Among the most important strategies for reducing fraud, therefore, is a time-limit on breach of trust, and also, if possible, on contact with the victim of the fraud. Adulterous relationships, in which this is not possible, require high expectations of behaviour, as is well known, and are seldom the result of balanced consideration. In all long-term relationships justifying trust is easier, even if this does not protect the truster from the exceptional circumstances of a well-secured individual, judiciously planted. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 245 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trust relationships must be built gradually through small steps because of environmental contingency.; Trust reduces the truster’s complexity while transferring that burden onto the trusted — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 245; Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present (+14 more)

Related

• Trust reduces the truster’s complexity while transferring that burden onto the trusted (similarity 0.92)
• Trust operates within already-reduced forms of an anonymously generated lifeworld (similarity 0.91)
• Trust reduces the complexity of a free alter ego’s unpredictability (similarity 0.89)
• Trust reduces social complexity by replacing missing information with guaranteed security (similarity 0.86)
• Trust expands a system’s complexity potential and buys it time (similarity 0.86)
• Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present (similarity 0.85)
• Trust reduces the complexity created by other people’s freedom (similarity 0.85)
• Trust and law evolved from a common root into differentiated mechanisms (similarity 0.84)
• Trusting action increases one’s vulnerability to another whose behavior is uncontrolled (similarity 0.84)
• Differentiated societies need more trust to reduce their greater complexity (similarity 0.84)
• Trust formation requires gradual step-by-step temporal adaptation (similarity 0.84)
• Luhmann reframed trust as social, not merely psychological (similarity 0.84)
• Trust expands the complexity a social system can sustain. (similarity 0.84)
• Trust reduces future complexity where instrumental mastery cannot (similarity 0.83)
• Social complexity forces the shift from personal to impersonal, system-governed trust. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Trust reduces the complexity of a free alter ego’s unpredictability #corroborates (0.55) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 247
• Trust functions by pruning the over-complex future to fit the present #qualifies (0.50)
• Trust reduces the truster’s complexity while transferring that burden onto the trusted #complicates (0.45) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 245