Hamlet famously says, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” But if we dig a little deeper, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is not so much a story about “being” as it is one about trust. Can Hamlet trust the ghost of his father? Can Hamlet trust his friends? Can Hamlet trust his uncle, his mother, any of his kin? Perhaps, then, his famous soliloquy might have begun another way:
To trust, or not to trust—well, is that the question, either? What even is trust? How does trust work within humans in the first place? How can we develop and build trust with others?
As philosophical as these questions may seem, there are answers to them. Let’s walk through the fascinating concept known as “trust.”
Typically, trust is considered to consist of four components:
Benevolence
Integrity
Competence
Predictability.
Psychologist Adam Waytz defines these components as follows:
“Benevolence essentially means, is this person a kind person? Integrity means, is this person an ethical person? Competence means, does this person have the ability to do what needs to be done? And finally, predictability means, does this person behave in a way that I can consistently forecast?”
In other words, when contemplating whether or not to “trust” someone, humans consider how kind that person is, if they meet the ethical standards we as individuals hold, if they are capable of completing whatever task is at hand, and if we connect with that person enough to have an idea of what they’ll do next. Pretty straightforward, right?
Here’s the fun part: “Trust is something that people tend to judge in another person’s face within 100 milliseconds.” For better or for worse, to make these rapid judgements is to be human, as trust is “in our genes and our childhood learning.” Determining trust begins from the moment we are born, when babies first establish connections with their mothers.
Of course, the fact that humans establish trust so quickly raises the question of what, exactly, influences our decision to trust (or not trust) others. What cues do we clue into to make such snap judgements about other people?
Let’s look into four factors:
Affinity Bias
We are more likely to trust people that are like us. “Like us” may mean physical resemblance. For example, a study conducted by researcher Lisa DeBruine revealed participants were more likely to trust the person in the provided image when that image had been morphed to resemble the participant’s own face. “Like us” can also refer to shared personality traits or mutual friend groups. Humanity thrives on social connections, so when we find any type of linkage with another person, trust is more likely to bloom.
Warmth and Competence
Which ties back to the four components of trust. When people demonstrate cruel or uncertain behavior, warning bells go off in the back of our minds, as trusting those people would likely result in their negative behavior being redirected towards us. But when people are kind and confident (though not arrogant), we recognize—or at least hope!—those positive qualities will end up turning our way.
Oxytocin
As it happens, there is a very specific neurochemistry to trust, and it centers around a hormone which already gets a lot of attention from the romance department: oxytocin. Oxytocin is commonly called “the love hormone,” but it’s also a chemical that plays a significant role in how humans experience and offer trust. To put it technically:
“[O]xytocin decreases both fear mechanisms associated with a potential aversion of betrayals (via the amygdala) and our reliance on positive feedback that can influence future decisions (via the caudate)… [which] in turn facilitates the expression of trust…”
In other words, when we have higher levels of oxytocin, we are more likely to trust others. Numerous studies out there have investigated the role of oxytocin in trust through the examination of different economic trust games, and their conclusions are consistent: when the levels of oxytocin in our brain are higher, we display a greater willingness to trust others (even after “betrayal”). Oxytocin facilitates trust. It is the science behind our snap instincts.
Time
Trust possesses an inherent duality, it exists on both short term and long term scales. Think of it like depositing at a bank: we might start by making small deposits, one by one, but over time those deposits come to consist of a much larger, stronger whole. Trust is the same way! Although we make decisions about trust very quickly, trust is simultaneously something that must be built and maintained over time.
So, to trust, or not to trust: is that the question? Perhaps not. The real question is how can we can establish a strong foundation of trust and build it into something beautiful over time.
Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.
Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.
