For even bestowing trust is an act of self-presentation. The person who trusts presents himself as someone who is by his nature inclined to bestow trust. If the trust then turns out to be misplaced, the person who trusted is not only disappointed, but in some circumstances also exposed to ridicule. It then becomes obvious that he was too stupid to see through the situation, that he let himself be taken advantage of – a victim of the equivocal ethic which says that one should trust, but not too blindly. At this point, it comes to be something which depends on practice and expertise in self-presentation.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 293