Trust is structurally vulnerable because agents can exploit principals’ ignorance and distance.

Evidence

Agents therefore hold structural opportunities to “take the money-in all its manifest forms-and run,” while unwitting principals, blinded by distance, organizational structure, secrecy, and lack of expertise, idly await the future dividends of symbolic promises made by faceless strangers. ” Hence, the problem of trust. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 35

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects to ‘On Sacrifice’ themes of institutional dependence and the cost of delegating control of one’s fate to distant others.
• XREF: connects to: Trust is structurally precarious because agents control symbolic wealth at a distance from principals. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 35; Secrecy and distance structurally prevent principals from monitoring agents. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 50; Trust is a fragile coping device for ignorance about others’ future behavior — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2719 (+2 more)

Related

• Trust is structurally precarious because agents control symbolic wealth at a distance from principals. (similarity 0.93)
• Secrecy and distance structurally prevent principals from monitoring agents. (similarity 0.86)
• The same features enabling trust also enable agent abuse. (similarity 0.86)
• Impersonal trust emerges where principals lose direct power to regulate agents. (similarity 0.85)
• Principals mitigate distrust by hoarding wealth, self-sufficiency, or acquiring expertise. (similarity 0.85)
• Impersonal trust persists despite agency tensions and varies greatly across conditions. (similarity 0.85)
• The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. (similarity 0.84)
• The very mechanisms that enable trust also enable its abuse. (similarity 0.84)
• Trust is a social relationship of investing responsibility in another for uncertain future return. (similarity 0.84)
• Mechanisms for controlling impersonal trust themselves create new opportunities for abuse (similarity 0.82)
• Impersonal trust emerges where face-to-face control mechanisms are unavailable (similarity 0.81)
• Trust-based agency relationships fail when the principal cannot exit or evaluate. (similarity 0.81)
• Trust control is a specialized occupation that sidelines ordinary actors (similarity 0.81)
• Trust is defined as delegating authority for uncertain future returns (similarity 0.81)
• Controlling trust creates new opportunities for abuse in an inflationary spiral. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Trust is structurally precarious because agents control symbolic wealth at a distance from principals. #corroborates (0.95) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 35
• Trust is a fragile coping device for ignorance about others’ future behavior #corroborates (0.90) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2719
• Secrecy and distance structurally prevent principals from monitoring agents. #expands (0.85) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 50
• Impersonal trust emerges where principals lose direct power to regulate agents. #corroborates (0.78) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 51