The concession of trust, that is, can generate the very behaviour which might logically seem to be its precondition. … Secondly, if behaviour spreads through learning and imitation, then sustained distrust can only lead to further distrust. Trust, even if always misplaced, can never do worse than that, and the expectation that it might do at least marginally better is therefore plausible.

Builds on: "Distrust becomes self-fulfilling and self-justifying through its own effects"

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2874