Abstract
How do societies control trust relationships that are not embedded in structures of personal relations? This paper discusses the guardians of impersonal trust and discovers that, in the quest for agent fidelity, they create new problems. The resulting collection of procedural norms, structural constraints, entry restrictions, policing mechanisms, social-control specialists, and insurance-like arrangements increases the opportunities for abuse while it encourages less acceptable trustee performance. Moreover, this system sometimes leads people to throw good "money" after bad; they protect trust and respond to its failures by conferring even more trust. The paper explores the sources and consequences of the paradox that the guardians of trust are themselves trustees.
Keywords
Control (management)FidelitySocial trustSocial controlExpress trustBusinessInformal social controlSocial psychologyLaw and economicsPublic relationsPsychologySociologyLawComputer sciencePolitical scienceEconomicsSocial capitalManagement
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1987
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 623-658
- Citations
- 1672
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Susan P. Shapiro
(1987).
The Social Control of Impersonal Trust.
American Journal of Sociology
, 93
(3)
, 623-658.
https://doi.org/10.1086/228791
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1086/228791