Trust is dynamic As we will unravel later, trust begets trust, which begets trustworthiness. This equation is society’s most valuable power plant. In Chapter 4, we will study the Trust Flywheel, a tool for intentionally engaging the process of developing trust in relationships. Trust momentum needs to be continually fed by this process, and that momentum helps in healing broken trust, and strengthening trust over time. A parent, political candidate, teacher, or leader who exhibits that they can trust will in turn be trusted, and that process brands them trustworthy. In every connection, from personal to institutional to societal, trust is the key indicator and predictor of health. Conversely, the lack of trust is devastating. A deficiency in trust nourishes apathy. The lack of trust not only inhibits success, but an ever-increasing distrust erodes the underpinnings of transactions and interactions and leaves relationships void of “relations.” Peer into any fragmented home, marriage, government, or world system and you’ll find the absence of trust and an increasing presence of distrust. Trust is a hot topic globally as historically reliable institutions of trust are increasingly not trustworthy. “Like the plot of some overblown soap opera or Jacobean tragedy, the episodes of unethical behaviour have come thick and fast, from the lurid, even criminal, to the just plain stupid and, sadly, routine. Each has chipped away at public confidence. The British MPs ’ expenses scandal ; the false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs ) ; Tesco’s horsemeat outrage ; price gouging by big pharma ; the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill ; the dishonours of FIFA’s bribery ; Volkswagen’s ‘ dieselgate ’ ; major data breaches from companies such as Sony , Yahoo ! and Target ;
How the Brain Processes Trust and Distrust
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