In general, it seems that, in the end, all that one can invest in is reputation, which is not necessarily correlated with trustworthiness. The only way to actually affect trustworthiness is by changing one's incentives—for example, by entering into long-term ongoing relationships with those whose trust one would like to have. Hence trustworthiness is not a commodity, even though perceived trustworthiness (that is, reputation) is.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 406