Trust as Attractor Depth in Social Space: Betrayal as Displacement, Institutional Decay, and the Ground State of Cooperative Society

We apply the Displacement Framework to trust, defining it as attractor depth in relational or institutional space. Betrayal is a displacement event that degrades the basin. Repair requires accumulated return-path investment proportional to betrayal depth — not intention alone. Transparent agents build trust faster because their legibility gap is low. Distrust is formalized as a rational but infinitely costly equilibrium.

Institutional trust decay is population-scale basin degradation with asymmetric repair dynamics. Social capital is mean collective attractor depth; resilience equals social capital exceeding shock magnitude. Inequality structurally depresses collective attractor depth.