Overview

Trust is a reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, or surety of a person or thing. In ethics, it is the glue that holds society together.

Core Idea

The core idea is vulnerability. To trust is to make yourself vulnerable to another, believing they will not exploit that vulnerability.

Formal Definition

Trust is an attitude that we have towards people whom we hope will be trustworthy, where trustworthiness is a property of being reliable and having good will.

Intuition

  • The Babysitter: You leave your child with a stranger. You are trusting them with your most precious “possession.”
  • Money: You put money in a bank. You trust the bank won’t steal it and the government ensures the currency has value.

Examples

  • Interpersonal Trust: Between friends and spouses.
  • Institutional Trust: Trust in the government, science, or the media. (Currently in decline).
  • The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Shows that without trust, rational agents produce worse outcomes for everyone.

Common Misconceptions

  • Misconception: Trust is blind.
    • Correction: “Rational trust” is based on evidence of reliability. “Blind trust” is often foolish.
  • Misconception: Trust is just prediction.
    • Correction: It involves a normative expectation. If I trust you and you fail, I don’t just say “I predicted wrong”; I feel betrayed.
  • Betrayal: The violation of trust.
  • Social Capital: The collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other (trust).
  • Distrust: The active belief that someone is untrustworthy.

Applications

  • Business: “Trust is the speed of business.” Low trust means high transaction costs (lawyers, contracts).
  • Politics: Democracy requires trusting that the loser will accept the election results.

Criticism and Limitations

  • Risk: Trust is risky. The “gullible” are often exploited.
  • Exclusion: High-trust groups (like mafias or cliques) can be very trusting internally but hostile to outsiders.

Further Reading

  • Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity by Francis Fukuyama
  • Moral Trust by Annette Baier