Typical solutions for agents assessing trust relies on the circulation of information on the individual level, i.e. reputational images, subjective experi- ences, statistical analysis, etc. This work presents an alternative approach, inspired to the cognitive heuristics enabling humans to reason at a categorial level. The approach is envisaged as a crucial ability for agents in order to: (1) estimate trustworthiness of unknown trustees based on an ascribed mem- bership to categories; (2) learn a series of emer- gent relations between trustees observable proper- ties and their effective abilities to fulfill tasks in sit- uated conditions. On such a basis, categorization is provided to recognize signs (Manifesta) through which hidden capabilities (Kripta) can be inferred. Learning is provided to refine reasoning attitudes needed to ascribe tasks to categories. A series of ar- chitectures combining categorization abilities, indi- vidual experiences and context awareness are eval- uated and compared in simulated experiments.