in traditionally trustworthy institutions. Headline-makers and their advertisers cultivate our feelings of distrust and make money off of the fear that accompanies it. News outlets, thought leaders, and researchers have crescendoed their diagnosis: we are living through a “trust crisis.” Over the decades, the U.S. has been shaken by national financial meltdowns and betrayed by representatives we elected, religious leaders who are corrupt or impotent in the face of crisis, and increasing misinformation and manipulation from the Fourth Estate. 2 As we observe trust and distrust interactions processed in the exploding digital world, we find ourselves cartographers armed with paper maps for a flat earth. Who can we trust? When we believe we can only choose to trust or distrust, our fear is that we can trust no one. If trust and distrust are two ends of the same spectrum, then obviously we can only distrust our environment and the people around us in this time of crisis. This prospect is frightening and exhausting, especially because we instinctively want to trust and have trusting relationships we can rely on! When we trust a person or organization and they let us down, it makes us think we are a bad judge of character - which can make us feel unsafe with our own judgments. (Making space for our own healthy distrust, at the same time as we are choosing to build trust in a relationship, is an essential skill we’ll talk about in Chapter 6.) At the core of all this we wonder, “Can it be fixed?” Can we ever trust a president again? Will the media regain the trusted “Cronkite” status they once enjoyed? Can we trust our financial future to banks and Wall Street? Can we ever rely on a spiritual leader or group to care for us and have the answers we need? In spite of how you may be feeling after reading all that, the answer to these questions is a resounding “Yes!” Trust is stronger than
How the Brain Processes Trust and Distrust
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