W.H.O. CAN YOU TRUST
Channel: Informed Consent
Date: 2020-12-15

W.H.O. CAN YOU TRUST - A: YOUR DOG 
The word trust has its origins in the Indo-European root droust meaning "solid" and "lasting."  In Old English it referred to "confidence" and "dependence," while in the 14th century Chaucer used the word trust to mean "virtual certainty and well-grounded hope." The old connotations of the word have preserved to the present day, where trust as we know it is a "lubricant of social interaction" and an essential ingredient for thriving interpersonal relationships – from families, to friends, to organizations. Trust and reciprocity are considered to be the "basis of all human systems of morality." Not only is trust an elixir for social functioning, but as part of a nation's social capital, trust affects vital economic variables such as GDP growth and inflation rates.


Researchers in social psychology differentiate between two kinds of trust – affective and cognitive. Cognitive trust is based on our knowledge and evidence about those we choose to trust. Affective trust, on the other hand, is born out of our emotional ties with others, including the security and the confidence we place in others based on the feelings generated by our interactions. Sometimes, the differences of cognitive and affective trust have been described as trusting with your head (cognitive) and trusting with your heart (affective).

Trustworthiness is an esteemed virtue among friends and employers alike and it comes with a host of perks. Those with more trust are less likely to lie, and appear more ethical, more attractive and even happier (see review in Rotter, 1980). Moreover, someone who is deemed trustworthy appears to epitomize a set of positive characteristics, including ability (skills and competencies), benevolence (the will to do good), and integrity (adhering to principles).

Trust also plays a critical role in the dynamics of leading and working with global teams. In her book The Culture Map, Erin Meyer identifies trust as one of the 8 scales to consider for improving effectiveness in multicultural business settings. What's one of the biggest challenges of building trust across cultures? According to Meyer, it's the different ways people come to feel trust around the world.

"What we have seen in research, is that in some parts of the world like the US, UK, Australia or Northern Europe, people have a tendency to separate cognitive trust for work and affective trust for home. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East there is more of a tendency to weave cognitive and affective trust together in the work environment."


The psychology of trust 

How do psychologists and economists study trust? One of the most prevalent routes has been via the trust game. In this game, two players sequentially send money to each other. The first player can choose to place a large sum of money in the hands of the second player. Because the second player is not obliged to reciprocate (and can keep all gains for herself), the possibility of betrayal of the initial investment simulates many real-life situations involving trust. The results of hundreds of studies with trust games have yielded fascinating insights into the psychology and neurobiology of trust. For instance:



The hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin increases trust, likely by suppressing the neural systems that regulate our fear of betrayal.
When we feel negative emotions, we are less likely to trust others.
We may base our decisions about whom to trust on their attractiveness, how much they resemble our kin members, and their facial features. One study, for instance, showed that males with relatively wider faces (a feature associated with testosterone) were less likely to be trusted during the trust game.
Women tend to reciprocate their wealth in trust games more than men. People may have a "preconscious friend-or-foe mental mechanism" that helps them to evaluate others during interactions (partners are trusted more than opponents).
Genetic variation and heredity influence how people invest or reciprocate during trust games.
Trust in strangers increases from childhood to early adulthood, and then remains more or less stable in adulthood.
There are differences in levels of trust across cultures. For instance, Americans are more trusting of others compared to the Japanese and the Germans during trust games.