In the encapsulated-interest account, it is the reason for the expectations that defines trust. If I expect you to fulfill my trust because I think you encapsulate my interests to some extent in your own, then I can be said to trust you. If I expect you to fulfill my trust because you would act in the relevant way even if I were not in the picture, then I have expectations but not trust as encapsulated interest. Often, as in mutual trust in an ongoing exchange relationship, the encapsulated interest is simply the interest the trusted has to continue the relationship, because that relationship is valuable to the trusted. Hence the trusted's trustworthiness is not a general characteristic of the trusted but is specifically related to the truster. It is relational, often perhaps even wholly relational.

XREF: Connects to game theory and repeated-game cooperation theory, where relationship value sustains cooperation rather than intrinsic virtue.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 428