Trust is rational in regard to the function of increasing the potential of a system for complexity. Without trust only very simple forms of human co-operation that can be transacted on the spot are possible, and even individual action is much too sensitive to disruption to be capable of being planned, without trust, beyond the immediately assured moment. Trust is indispensable in order to increase a social system’s potential for action beyond these elementary forms. Completely new types of actions, above all such as are not immediately satisfying and hence have to be artificially motivated, become possible in a system which can activate trust. Through trust a system gains time, and time is the critical variable in the construction of complex system structures. The satisfying of needs can be delayed, and nevertheless guaranteed. Instrumental action, oriented towards distant effects, can become institutionalized if the temporal horizon of a system is suitably extended by means of trust. The availability of liquid financial resources, power and truth, all mechanisms dependent on trust, makes possible an indifference on the part of the system towards numerous events in the environment and thus a gain in reaction time.

XREF: Connects to Luhmann's systems theory and sociological concepts of trust as a complexity-reduction mechanism.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 309