9 minute read
The Importance of Trust
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST
By Maja Damjanovska Momiroska
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- Ernest Hemingway
Who do we trust?Do we trust ourselves?
What if we don’t keep the promise that we made to ourselves?
Tonight, I will go to bed earlier. I will talk to my boss tomorrow. Next year I will take better care of my health. This month I will save more. I need to get up earlier, and I use the snooze option countless times... Do you awaken the urge to rebel in yourself when you have not been consistent with your unfulfilled plans? Are you hard on yourself and judge yourself the way you judge others when they don’t deliver on their promises? Why don’t we treat ourselves with the same respect that we treat other people? Are we mindful of the responsibility we have towards ourselves, reflecting it in the outside world?
Trust is not irrational or illusory, explains Michael Kosfeld. It’s a biologically-based part of human nature. Biologically explained, what directs the human brain to trust someone is a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone produced in the hypothalamus of the brain and stored in the posterior pituitary gland. In addition to its other properties commonly associated with motherhood, oxytocin also reduces social anxiety and helps people to bond better with each other.
According to this research, trust is a biologically based part of the human being. The element of trust is crucial to almost all interpersonal social interactions between people. When trust is absent, people are, in a way, dehumanized. Also, trust is a complex neural process that links different representations into a semantic pointer which includes emotions.
I was recently at a conference where trust was discussed. This event inspired me to write about trust and trustworthiness. The reason is the need we all feel, every once in a while, to reevaluate our relationship and attitude towards trust - towards ourselves, towards others, as well as our spiritual side and our relationship with God. Which side of the axis does the arrow point to when others answer whether they trust us? Do we, from time to time, question how others see us or do we live by inertia and our reflection on the outside is not so important to us? Are you aware of your emotional file and honestly share a part of yourself when you connect? Or are you completely hidden behind your tightly built dam?
Do you trust me if I trust you?Do I have to trust you if you trust me?
How do you give other people adequate, useful and simple proof that you are a trustworthy person, that they can trust you?
Several factors are important for whether people will trust a person, such as how rationally that person behaves, judging, however, according to their criteria of rationality. Next, the behaviour of the person who creates our trust, empathy and clarity in expression is also very important. Other factors, by no means neglected, are the integrity and competence that the person possesses. Benevolence, which can be expressed in various ways (by indicating a pleasant, kind and positive approach) is extremely essential. In order to trust, above all, we need to feel physically and emotionally safe.
The speed at which people begin to trust each other is completely individual. This can often be culturally different.
Social psychologists are interested in studying trust because it allows people to communicate more deeply and effectively. They try to understand the process of developing trust and what happens when it is broken. A tool developed by economists called “the Trust Game” sheds light on these issues. One key finding is that showing trust creates a sense of obligation in return. The greater the risk, the greater the sense of obligation created. The connection created quickly disintegrates when the players show little trust.
Maja Damjanovska Momiroska
eYs Magazine, Belgium
“Without trust, people give up on relationships and leave organizations, cynicism reigns, progress grinds to a halt, and self-interest trumps the common good,” states Ken Blanchard, Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Trust Works. In an environment where enough trust is built, people feel free to move and grow faster, give their best, and maybe even take more risks. In such a trusting environment, people do not have the natural urge to protect themselves or “watch their backs” as they might in an environment where trust is not present. When there is trust, positivity is awakened and along with it, productivity is high. Creativity flourishes, all barriers and obstacles are more easily overcome, and mutual relations deepen.
Trust is a very distinctive and specific category because trust is something that is given to us by other people. So, we often talk about “re/building” trust between different categories of people and situations, but my opinion is that we cannot rebuild or restore something that other people decide to give to us. To gain someone’s trust, first of all, we need to give some kind of proof to create that kind of perception in other people. Whether we strive for it daily or not, it is up to us to decide. It is in these kinds of views and colourful approaches that we weave our diversities.
Is it enough for someone to say “Trust me”? Or do you need much more than these two dryly spoken words?
If someone asked me, “Do you trust me?”, or if I trust someone, I would first ask, “About what?”. I trust my children’s teacher to teach them, take care of them and bring them up, yet I certainly wouldn’t trust her if she had to drive the school bus.
When we agree to the Licence Agreement for our new mobile device do we read all 229 pages, or do we simply trust the manufacturer? Do we, therefore, choose a manufacturer we trust based on previously proven quality in the market?
Can you be trusted at work? If the work is always completed by the specified deadline, then, over time, you quietly and imperceptibly build trust with others. Once you know that others trust you, is that enough for you? Or maybe you feel that you deserve praise, a higher salary or a better position in the company?
One thing is quite clear - in a work environment where there is more trust, there is more efficiency in the work.
Being trusted is one of the most valuable compliments I can receive at home or work. Why is the trust category specific? The way of building trust with others is challenging, dynamic, interesting and exciting. That’s why I love those journeys taken by new acquaintances when their familiarization with one another results in certain new conclusions. When trust is high, people have a greater desire and need to express their thoughts, emotions, reactions, and opinions, to share information and ideas.
Even though at the conference, which I previously mentioned, there was a lot of talk about trust as a concept, our conversations and openness to share our thoughts, experiences and feelings differed significantly on the first day from the last, fourth day when we shared part of ourselves most openly with others. Part of the reason for our greater openness certainly lies in the trust created.
According to research published on Our World in Data, when comparing people’s attitudes about trust, globally, the conclusion leads to time-constant heterogeneity across countries. At one extreme are countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, where more than 60% of survey respondents believe that people can be trusted. At the other extreme are countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, where less than 10% of respondents answered yes to the question of whether people can be trusted.
The trust also varies significantly by profession. According to research conducted by the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions about the trust in the professions, the research that was done at the global level, the conclusion is almost unanimous that people trust firefighters the most. Trust in firefighters is followed by high-level trust in nurses, teachers and doctors. Bankers and judges, for example, are far down on the trust scale.
At the Edelman Global Report Trust barometer, whose surveys have been conducted every year for 22 years, in 2022 a difference can be observed in the respondents’ answers, compared to previous years. First on the list of trust by sector is the business sector, followed by NGOs and then the Government and the Media.
I believe that we all hide an even better version of ourselves than the one we manifest. We can earn and build even greater interpersonal trust tomorrow than today. Tomorrow is a new day, a new blessing in which we can do more for the world. Let’s be humane, reliable, empathetic, and positive persons. Let’s build and rebuild (where necessary) trust in every corner of the globe. Let’s be trustworthy people to earn the trust of others. You and I, let’s do it together. Let’s give each other the base so that we can gain mutual trust.
I decided to trust. I trust God, and then I trust myself, you, others, and what surrounds me. We are a perfect creation to be managed and built with trustworthy behaviour complemented by integrity, generosity, kindness and empathy. Such as we were created – pure, empathetic and true, the world needs us the most right now.
