In general, the complexity of the problem of trust derives primarily from the complexity of the problem of trustworthiness. As this chapter demonstrates, the motivations for being trustworthy are manifold. In a sense, trusting someone in some context is simply to be explained as merely the expectation that the person will most likely be trustworthy. Trust is little more than knowledge; trustworthiness is a motivation or a set of motivations for acting. Motivationally, there is much to be explained about why someone acts as though with trust when there is little ground to believe that the other is trustworthy, so that, in fact, there is little or no trust. The explanation of your actually trusting in some context will be simply an epistemological, evidentiary matter—not a motivational problem. The explanation of your trustworthiness can be either simple or complicated, and it will depend on motivation.

DEFINE: Distinguishes trust (epistemic expectation) from trustworthiness (motivational), a conceptual split that frames the chapter.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 178