Trust Me
Trust me. No two words have such a wide array of implications. It’s the punchline of a joke. An appeal for help. An appeal to help. But here’s my question. What kind of trusts are there? And do we get them mixed up?
There was an interesting article written by Jacquelyn Schneider from Stanford University in the Jan/Feb ’22 issue of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Schneider defined trust as “the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something”. She identified two types of trust. The first is “Particularized Trust”. This is a trust in known others. It’s a trust based on personal knowledge (accurate or not). This works well for isolated groups. Families. An individual essentially trusts someone or something because that someone or something has earned the trust directly.
The second kind? We’re talking “Generalized Trust”. This extends beyond known circles. Where individuals must delegate their trust to individuals, organizations, and processes. Here’s an example. Let’s get some gas, shall we? You just added 15 gallons of gas to your car and it cost $45. You trust the gas station that it was in fact 15 gallons. You trust that the quality of gas was appropriate. You trust the definition of what is quality gas. You trust the several parties involved in the transaction that your credit card was only charged $45. And that everybody had your personal and fiscal safety in mind throughout the process.
Every day you demonstrate dozens (if not more) examples of both Particularized and Generalized trust. You truly could not exist in today’s society without reliance on both. Business development is largely about building and strengthening trust (of both types) with new and existing clients. And one of the best ways to destroy or damage a society? Start tearing down the generalized trust that allows it to survive.
Thankfully, nobody’s trying to do that…right? To me Trust is a word we use far too casually, and we forget that you can trust an enemy just as much as a friend. Scorpion fables, anybody?