Trust: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #325

by Katherine Hawley

Trust is indispensable to our everyday lives, yet it can be dangerous. Without trusting others, we cannot function in society, or even stay alive for very long, but being overly trustful can leave us open to exploitation and abuse. And not only is trust pragmatic, but it also has a moral dimension: trustworthiness is a virtue, and well-placed trust benefits us all. In this Very Short Introduction, philosopher Katherine Hawley explores the key ideas about trust and distrust. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, and evolutionary biology, she emphasizes the nature and importance of trusting and being trusted, from our intimate bonds with significant others to our relationship with the state. Considering questions such as "Why do we value trust?" and "Why do we want to be trusted rather than distrusted?" Hawley illuminates the importance of trust in the personal and public spheres. Moreover, she draws on a range of research to show how trust stands at the center of many disciplines, including biology, psychology, and game theory. The book also examines the evolutionary aspects of trust.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Relationships

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2012

About the author

Katherine Hawley grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, studied Physics and Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, spent a few inarticulate months living in France, then moved to Cambridge, where she took an M.Phil. and subsequently a Ph.D. in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (working with Peter Lipton). She was Henry Sidgwick Research Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, before taking up a lectureship at St Andrews in 1999. Hawley had two children who were born in 2004.

Professor Hawley was known for her philosophical work on trust, various questions in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science, and other topics such as impostor syndrome and creativity.

Her work in public philosophy included interviews, radio and podcast appearances, government consulting, and a long-running column in Psychology Today.

She died of cancer.

Reviews

[Savir Husain Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Hawley put together the concepts of trust in a simple and compressible way, that one can very much relate to it.
The book starts with, differentiating between wheater you are trusting someone or mechanically relying on them, which can be categorized on the basis of your heightened expectations in trusting and your reaction if the trustee lets you down.
Trustworthiness can be a parameter for the trust which further depending on whether we fulfill the proposed commitments or not.
When we trust someone, we expect them to fulfill their commitments. When we distrust someone, we take them to have commitments but don’t expect them to fulfill these commitments.

Book also presented some analogies and case studies with the real-life example related with various theories.
it was a very informative read, something that very much applies to the real world.

Trusting what someone says has two aspects: an expectation of honesty, and an expectation of knowledge.


One policy is to trust only where we have good evidence that someone is trustworthy. This cautious policy sets the default to distrust: guilty until proven innocent.
A different policy sets the default to trust: we should trust people until we have some good reason to think they are untrustworthy. In other words: innocent until proven guilty.

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trust is one of those fundamental concepts that all of us take more or less for granted. It is essential glue that binds all functional relationships, and thanks to trust it is possible to live in incredibly complex societies with many oftentimes very competitive interests and yet be reasonably assured of one’s safety. However, once we start probing the nature of trust deeper, we realize how nuanced the notion of trust it really is. It involves much more than mare factual accuracy, knowledge, and it’s not restricted to individual human beings, but it has a much wider scope.

In “Trust: A Very Short Introduction” Katherine Hawley takes on a wide-ranging tour of trust, as it is best understood today. The book focuses on cultural, psychological, and philosophical questions that are relevant for the deeper understanding of this concept. The book is fairly detailed for such a short introduction, but it still manages to be accessible and informative for a wide range of readers. Hawley is an engaging and well-informed writer, and this book was definitely a pleasure to read. It is one of the better such book in this “Very Short Introduction” series. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in the topic of trust, as well as most other curious readers who want to broaden their intellectual horizons.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 1: What are trust and distrust?
Chapter 2: Why trust and trustworthiness matter
Chapter 3: Evolving trust and cooperation
Chapter 4: Take the money and run
Chapter 5: Honesty and dishonesty
Chapter 6: Knowledge and expertise
Chapter 7: Trust on the internet [sic]
Chapter 8: Institutions, conspiracies, and nations

[Richard Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star book rounded up to four as I’m in a generous mood today! I really like these OUP Very Short Introductions. I own several and have read several others. As the name suggests, they really are very short introductions, and given the constraints the authors have a choice. They can just sample a field picking one or two areas to write about or they can try to summarise it all. In this book Hawley seems to have tried the latter approach, which means that whilst often interesting it does at times veer into generic high-level platitudes.

Fortunately Hawley is a good and engaging writer so the shortcomings can be easily forgiven.

I have an interest in trust from my own work writing about professional services, and also from the viewpoint of philosophy and specifically epistemology and trust. Perhaps then I’m not the average reader. I was a little disappointed at times at the very broad direction the book took and the generic nature of much of the contents. But it is an easy and mostly pleasing read with a few interesting titbits on the way.

If you are interested in trust a little - or a lot but want somewhere to start - this book is not a bad place to go.

[Bia · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly really enjoyed reading this book! goes into a good chunk of detail on how trust actually governs our lives and how we have to choose our battles when contemplating whether to trust people/systems or not.

[Ramona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik had graag iets meer willen lezen over trust in business, maar ontzettend goed geschreven boek, zelfs grappig soms!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not a bad book, but as a very short introduction, it seemed to me the author was trying to touch on everything one might consider in a very long discussion, rather than making the most of the brevity to illuminate the heart of the matter. Maybe the series requires the former approach, I don't know.

The basic analysis is that trust has two aspects: an expectation of the intentions of the trusted party--that they mean to tell the truth or to carry out a commitment, and an expectation that they have relevant competence, either knowledge or skill. Added to this is the claim that trustworthiness is a valuable characteristic to cultivate.

Over the course of the book, this analysis came to seem reasonable to me. Yet, often it felt to me as though the discussion was not to the point (for instance, a lot of lengthy discussion of experiments that were perhaps not about trust at all; also, an occasional suggestion that trust is a lot like belief--but not very clearly explained or argued), or that perhaps a less calculative account of trust is more on point. As I don't know how to give such an account, though, maybe I'm not to be trusted. I would have appreciated a short book that helped me better understand why Hawley believes that analysis is just right.

[Jun Alcala · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you first think about trust, it’s normally what you feeling you get when deciding on something is worth the effort, as in do you gain something in the end or do you lose everything. That was my first though, but once I started reading Katherine Hawley’s, Trust A Very Short Introduction, Katherine gives many different examples of trust, ranging from honesty, knowledge vs. expertise and evolving trust. Depending on how you look at trust, this book introduces you to many beginner ideas of what trust should be. Taking ideas like giving someone your life savings and doing what they asked over what you want to do with it or trusting whether or not someone knows what they’re talking about. Either way, the book gives an open tour to the ideas previously mentioned and how trust can be developed in both online and offline communities. The book itself does not have many pages for content, shorter than 150 pages, but each chapter has enough content and ideas to inform someone the jist of trust. The book perfectly gives the title justice, as each chapter is as more informative as the last, giving it a lasting impression as you progress the book. I personally connected with this book through reading the examples given. I’ve had some trust issues in my past, but as time passed, I learned how to repair the holes and broken pieces from the damage done. This book includes ways to find yourself after losing that trust you had built, but to be clear, the best way to earn trust for yourself is through experience and time. Overall the book had a lot to offer for those who need something to read. It’s short, sweet, simple enough for anyone to understand, but even though advanced readers or those who believe they know what trust is, can learn a few more things from this book.

[Boaz Maor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, educational and entertaining book. The perspective on “the Cosmic Perspective” in the end is quite uplifting and motivating, indeed providing a wonderful conclusion to the book. The contradiction between optimistic and pessimistic views of people over the insignificance of our place in the universe and its drive to continue space exploration is delightful.

[Galatea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at what trust is and why we should trust each other, except when we shouldn't.

[Kim Horner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

Given the other VSIs in this series, I expected more depth, more philosophy. This seems a bit of a repetitive, simplistic take on an admittedly complex topic.

[La lepisma libraia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short introduction indeed. It only skims the surface and lets you wanting for more, but it does share some nice insights.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and accessible to Hawley's important and influential philosophical work on the concept of trust.

[Kate Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know it's meant to be a basic introduction, but it's a bit too basic. And almost entirely focused on interpersonal -- it would have benefitted from more acknowledgement of group and institutional.