Trustworthy reputation can be deliberately cultivated without deep personal bonds

Evidence

This is what I take the French managers to mean when they say they know each other and are partners. Perhaps this relation can best be conceived as an intermediate level between friends and stranger, for which capitalist societies have developed a distinctive tolerance. … But the evidence of French subcontracting shows that such bonds are not a necessary precondition for trust. If this interpretation is correct, then there is nothing to prevent firms (if they consider it worth while) making a concerted effort to inspire confidence. Certain types of behaviour, certain types of personal contact involving the exchange of information and the giving of mutual assurances, plus a considerable time for the consistency of one’s behaviour to be observed and tested: an effective combination of these things will surely enhance a reputation for trustworthiness. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2624

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core project: this ‘intermediate level between friends and stranger’ is precisely the trust-feasibility zone the Blindness/Luhmann/Hardin analysis concerns — testing observability and consistent behavior as substitutes for mutual monitoring. — connects to: Reputation messaging fails where preemptive mental defences are absent. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 695
• DEFINE: Defines ‘knowing each other’/‘partners’ in French subcontracting as an intermediate trust relation rather than friendship.