Trust reduces the complexity of a free alter ego’s unpredictability

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

Categorization

• DEFINE: States Luhmann’s core thesis linking trust to complexity reduction — the load-bearing definition for the reader’s whole argument.
• XREF: This is ‘system trust reduces social complexity’ in Luhmann’s own words; the anchor the reader’s thesis sets up against Giddens on faceless commitments. — connects to: Trust forms sequentially by reducing social complexity over discrete steps; Generalized media let one person’s selections drive another’s actions without trust in the person.; Trust reduces the truster’s complexity while transferring that burden onto the trusted — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 245 (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 247

Broader Connections

• Trust reduces future complexity where instrumental mastery cannot #expands (0.80)
• Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty #qualifies (0.70) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154
• Other minds as alter egos intensify complexity, requiring language to reduce it #expands (0.70)