David Dunning, Mary Ann and Charles R. Walgreen, Jr., Professor of the Study of Human Understanding; Professor of Psychology

Who Do You Trust? Trust at the Personal, Community, and Society Level

Who do you trust? More people than you think. We know about trust among those in our closest relationships, such as friends and family, but we also trust strangers every day in transient relationships on a frequent basis, as well as major institutions that govern our lives across our lifetime. Trust is the oxygen of social life and has tremendous implications. Marriages succeed or fail based on trust. A country’s health depends on trust in medicine and science, and it prospers when their citizens don’t view each other with cynicism. In this talk, I focus, though, on a vexing paradox about trust: Despite trust being essential for social life to thrive—try to have a relationship or run a civilization without it—powerful behavioral theories consider it irrational behavior, and you should never do it. I discuss what research trying to resolve this paradox reveals about the ways the human species manages this multifaceted challenge of trusting each other, allowing life to avoid being nasty, brutish, or short.

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