But there are two qualifications to be added to this rule. One must not infer that during the learning process trust can grow steadily and expand uninterruptedly into more important and consequential matters. To that extent experimental research in social psychology, which is concerned solely with minimal and trifling risks, affords a misleading basis for generalization. Changes in what is at stake and shifts in the balance between anticipated advantage and possible loss build into the learning process thresholds which make for qualitative differences – for instance, when the person who trusts is risking not only himself but also others, his family, his work, or his country.

XREF: Connects to research on risky decision-making and prospect theory (Kahneman/Tversky), where stake shifts alter risk evaluation. Also relevant to social trust literature at scale. QUESTION: What quantitative threshold marks the shift from minimally risky to consequential trust, and is it measurable or wholly contextual?

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 203