Trust means predicating one’s actions on others’ risky actions

Evidence

I agree with the emphasis placed by both Partha Dasgupta and Niklas Luhmann (in this volume) on the importance of personal agency in defining trust. Thus Dasgupta identifies trust as an expectation about another person’s actions which influences our own actions before we have full knowledge of the outcome; and Luhmann exposes to full view the distinction between personal and impersonal social organization. Clearly trust is the predication of one’s own actions on actions of others which bear an identifiable risk of turning out unfavourably. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2424

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is a crisp working definition of trust joining Dasgupta’s expectation model with Luhmann’s personal-impersonal distinction.
• XREF: The definition of trust as betting on risky others’ actions grounds the reader’s Hardin argument — trust requires observable constraints, which is exactly what Saramago’s blindness removes. — connects to: Trusting is only knowledge; acting on trust is what carries risk; Trust is not chosen, a gamble, or an investment; only actions are; Trust is a theory about another’s future performance based on their claims (+11 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2424

Broader Connections

• Trusting action increases one’s vulnerability to another whose behavior is uncontrolled #expands (0.85)
• Trust is a theory about another’s future performance based on their claims #corroborates (0.82)
• Trust requires controlling one’s own readiness to accept risk #qualifies (0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 161
• Trust is a cognitive state of belief, not an action or purpose #contradicts (0.80) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 98
• Trust is confidence expressing faith in others’ probity or in abstract principles. #expands (0.78) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 88
• Trust is expectation formed before the other’s action can be monitored #corroborates (0.75)
• Trust is a fragile coping device for ignorance about others’ future behavior #corroborates (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2719
• Trust functions as a device for coping with others’ freedom #expands (0.72) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1146