Trust is an irreducible tradeoff between over- and under-constraining agents.

Evidence

Baier (1986, 251) thinks the prisoner’s dilemma is overemphasized in discussions of moral philosophy and that this is especially a mistake for discussion of trust. However, she has an unduly formal view of the prisoner’s dilemma as inherently fitted to contracts and fixed payoffs. It is because many relations have the prisoner’s dilemma structure that trust is at issue in them. Moreover, the prisoner’s dilemma need not represent anything vaguely approaching equality of the parties. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 908 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The same features enabling trust also enable agent abuse. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 33; Rationality limits and inevitable surprise make trust irreducible in locked-in relations.; Trust requires both freedom to defect and constraints that make cooperation attractive (+3 more)

Related

• Trust matters precisely because relations have prisoner’s-dilemma structure (similarity 0.88)
• Trust requires both freedom to defect and constraints that make cooperation attractive (similarity 0.85)
• Trust constraint-setting trades false alarms against missed betrayals. (similarity 0.84)
• Building stable relations generates the incentives that produce trust (similarity 0.82)
• The very mechanisms that enable trust also enable its abuse. (similarity 0.81)
• Trust relationships self-maintain once the parties recognize mutual benefit (similarity 0.81)
• Trust operates where parties are both free and constrained (similarity 0.81)
• Trust requires both freedom to betray and constraint making the relationship worthwhile. (similarity 0.81)
• Trust requires genuine vulnerability and the partner’s real interest in betraying it (similarity 0.81)
• Reciprocal trust multiplies each party’s incentive to be trustworthy (similarity 0.80)
• Trust is structurally vulnerable because agents can exploit principals’ ignorance and distance. (similarity 0.80)
• Trust is encapsulated interest achievable through many incentive mechanisms (similarity 0.80)
• Trust requires genuine choice, occupying the space between determinism and indeterminacy (similarity 0.80)
• The same features enabling trust also enable agent abuse. (similarity 0.80)
• Trust only arises where opportunistic behavior is genuinely possible (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Rationality limits and inevitable surprise make trust irreducible in locked-in relations. #corroborates (0.92)
• Trust requires both freedom to defect and constraints that make cooperation attractive #expands (0.90)
• Trust matters precisely because relations have prisoner’s-dilemma structure #corroborates (0.88) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 908