We can choose to put ourselves in a position to come to know something, but we cannot look at the evidence and then decide to know. The evidence might compel us or it might not, but we do not choose the degree to which it does compel us. The recognition of this point and its denial are in contest in such claims as that it “is not possible to demand trust of others; trust can only be offered and accepted” (Luhmann 1980, 43). No. My trust of you can be neither offered nor withheld. It just is. I cannot withhold it from you—and it would make no sense to do so even if I could because it would be contrary to my interest as I understand it. Similarly, you can neither accept nor refuse my trust. Both of us, however, can choose to act or not to act on it in various contexts.

XREF: Contradicts Luhmann's framing that trust is offered and accepted; also challenges common exchange-model thinking about trust in relationships and institutions.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 303