Trust requires controlling one’s own readiness to accept risk

Evidence

Whoever trusts has to keep control over his own preparedness to accept the risks involved. He must make it clear to himself, if only to reassure himself, that he is not trusting unconditionally but rather within limits and in proportion to specific, rational expectations. It is himself he must curb and control when he puts his trust in someone or something. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 161

Categorization

• XREF: This is the exact psychological mechanics of Stevens’s self-restraint — he curbs his own questioning of Darlington’s judgment, controlling his trust-budget rather than the facts. — connects to: Trust requires freedom be transferred from uncontrollable potency to institutionalized personal responsibility.; Trust cannot be demanded but only offered through vulnerability; Trust is proven only through unused opportunities to betray — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 203 (+20 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies Luhmann’s internalist account: the constraint that makes trust possible is reflexive and applied to the self, not to the trusted party.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 161

Broader Connections

• Trusting others and trusting oneself develop together. #expands (0.40) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 231
• Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty #complicates (0.30) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154