{
  "id": "too-good-to-be-true.trust",
  "term": "too good to be true",
  "sense": "trust",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 16,
  "arena": "belief formation under uncertainty",
  "domain": "social cognition",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A model that cannot hold a thing inside its window because the parameters are too far from what maintenance can reach, yet trust acts as if it were real.",
  "folk_gloss": "Something that seems better than what is realistic or possible.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "model.representation",
      "trust.reliance",
      "window.range",
      "parameter.condition",
      "maintenance.upkeep"
    ],
    "interaction": "self-model and external signal",
    "novel_properties": [
      "mismatch between expected and actual window",
      "trust persisting beyond model failure"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Theranos claimed blood tests from one drop, but its devices failed calibration checks and collapsed under FDA review.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "Fukushima's seawall was built for a 3.1-meter tsunami, not the 14-meter wave that breached it in 2011.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2008 housing market crashed when 'AAA' ratings persisted on mortgage-backed securities despite rising default rates.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "too good to be true"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — model and trust"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-too-good-to-be-true.trust"
}