ABSTRACT
Georg Simmel proposed that trust is a mixture of rationality and feeling: it is based on a certain amount of rational assessment, but also entails a leap of faith beyond that (Möllering, 2001). This seems related to the ‘paradox of information’ associated with trust (Pagden, 1988). On the one hand, trust requires a lack of information: if we were certain about future behaviour, we would no longer speak of trust. On the other hand, trust is based on information, in attributions of motives and competencies to people, based on observed or reported behaviour.
