Becker supposes that an abused child who clings to an abusing parent, or an abused spouse who clings to the abuser, trusts the abuser—hence noncognitively trusts. I am not qualified to discuss the psychological literature on such relationships, but this seems unlikely. Rather, the child or the abused spouse has no better place to go. The citizens abused by Papa Doc did not reveal noncognitive trust by the mere fact of staying on in Haiti.

XREF: Challenges Becker's notion of noncognitive trust; connects to theories of learned helplessness and structural coercion.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 943