Trust reduces complexity by strengthening constancies and increasing tolerance of ambiguity.

Evidence

This discussion has helped to throw the function of trust into sharper relief. It strengthens the capacity of the present for understanding and reducing complexity: it strengthens constancies as opposed to events and thus makes it possible to live and to act with greater complexity in relation to events. In terms of a well-known psychological theory, trust increases the ‘tolerance of ambiguity’. This effect is not to be confused with instrumental mastery over events. Where such mastery can be assured (i.e. ‘actualized’), trust is not necessary. But trust is required for the reduction of a future characterized by more or less indeterminate complexity. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 128

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition: trust functionally strengthens constancies over events, enabling action in the face of indeterminate future complexity.
• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s thesis: trust substitutes for ‘instrumental mastery’ — exactly how Stevens’s institutional-faceless commitment compensates for his lack of control over Lord Darlington’s choices.
• SEED: Could anchor an article on how the head butler’s devotion functions as a Luhmannian trust mechanism that raises his tolerance of ambiguity at the cost of ethical judgment.