200 milliseconds that’s one-fifth of a
second that’s how long it takes us to
size someone up and decide whether
they’re trustworthy 200 milliseconds to
give you some context it takes you 300
milliseconds to blink so literally in
less than a blink of an eye
your brain is already processed all the
information it needs to judge someone’s
trustworthiness why do you think we
humans develop the ability to do this so
quickly well the short answer is that
knowing who to trust
kept our ancestors alive but beyond
survival it also served another very
important function as a species we’re
not that fast we’re not very strong we
can’t fly and we don’t have great vision
or hearing but what we do have is
intelligence and we learned long ago
that if we cooperate if we work together
that we can not only survive but thrive
cooperation became an evolutionary
advantage for us and cooperation
requires trust we humans are social
animals and Trust is the foundation of
human relationships we’ve built our
social structures our economy our entire
society to operate on trusting
relationships with others but I think
each of us understands intuitively that
we don’t trust as much as we used to
that trust has declined and you’re right
it has but I don’t think most people
fully realize just how bad it’s gotten
if you look at the data that measures
trust I think you’ll find it as alarming
a generation ago 78% of us said that we
trusted the federal government today
that number is 18 percent 72 percent of
us said that we trusted the media today
less than a third of us do fewer than
20% of us say that we trust businesses
to do the right thing and the
credibility of CEOs has hit an all-time
low
its recently as 30 years ago fully half
of us agreed that most people could be
trusted today less than a third of us
feel the same way and if you asked
Millennials that number drops to 19
percent and this is not just an American
issue this is a global phenomenon
the folks at Edelman research each year
published their trust barometer where
they interview more than 33,000 people
across 28 different countries tracking
trust in that country’s major
institutions global average for trust
has fallen below 50 percent meaning that
according to Edelman’s classifications
we live in a distrusting world Wow
it’s depressing isn’t it sorry about
what these numbers show is that this
decline in trust is bigger than any
political administration or economic
environment Trust has been declining for
more than 50 years no it’s bigger than
that this change is taking place on a
societal level and it begs the question
when do these numbers fall to the point
where it changes how Trust in our
society works or doesn’t work at what
point do we cross a line well looking at
those numbers it’s not hard to imagine
that that line may very well already be
behind us what is hard to imagine is
that we’re ever going back to the way
that it used to be this is our new
reality this is the new world that we
live in to become trusted in this new
world we need to change the way that we
think about trust we need to re-evaluate
our understanding of what Trust is
and how Trust now works the first thing
that we need to change is this belief
that you have trust until you lose trust
in other words that you will be trusted
unless you prove unworthy of that trust
in a world where people’s willingness to
trust was high the default position was
that you would be trusted he didn’t need
to build trust he just needed to
preserve it because you began each
relationship from a position mutual
trust that’s not the case anymore the
default position is no longer the people
will trust you I think the data shows
that you can no longer assume that this
idea that we’re no longer getting the
benefit of the doubt little
disconcerning isn’t it
feels a little like we’re now guilty
until proven innocent right that’s
because we have a tendency to think of
trust as an either/or proposition that
you’re either trusted or you’re
distrusted but that’s not the case
because trust and distrust are not
opposites in fact the pathways in our
brain that we use for trust are
different from the ones that we use for
distrust we actually process them in
different parts of our brain one is not
merely the absence of the other there’s
a third option a space between trusted
and distrusted I call this space the
trust trough this is where doubt lives
and it lives along a continuum from
uncertainty to skepticism to outright
suspicion the important thing to
understand about the trust trough is
that it is a place of inaction situ
trust is to act in a positive direction
if I trust you you willing to act
towards you positively to embrace your
ideas to support your causes to buy your
products if I distrust you I’m also
willing to act towards you but in a
negative way
I will withhold my support I may warn
others about you I may actively advocate
against you but in the trust trough
there is no action if people don’t trust
they don’t act let me say that again if
people don’t trust they don’t act it was
the Nobel laureate and author Elie
Wiesel who said the opposite of love is
not hate its indifference because to
hate you still need to care well
similarly the opposite of trust is not
distrust
the new default position for trust is
now somewhere in the trust Rafa
you’re not distrusted but you’re not
necessarily trusted either if you want
to become trusted if you want to get
people to act if you want to get them
out of the trust trough you now need to
first prove to them that you are worthy
of their trust it’s no longer about
preserving trust nowadays you need to
actively build trust so how do you do
that well to understand how to build
trust you first need to understand what
Trust is see we have a tendency to think
of trust as a single thing it’s not it’s
actually a pretty complex combination of
judgments and assessments that we make
about someone the Trust has two main
components two sides of a coin if you
will when we use the word trust we’re
usually used in the context of
evaluating either someone’s competence
or their sincerity by competence we mean
are you capable do I believe that you
can do what you claim and are you
dependable you have a history of
fulfilling commitments sincerity means
are you honest do I believe that you
will be truthful with me and are you
fair do I believe that you will act in
good faith and consider my needs in
addition to your own another way to
think about this is that competence
judges someone’s actions while sincerity
so let me ask you this which side is
more important I’ll ask it in a slightly
different way who would you rather deal
with someone who is honest but
incompetent or someone who is competent
but dishonest here’s something else to
consider I think it’s safe to say that
as a society that we’ve become more
competent over time would you agree that
cell phone in your pocket is a heck of a
lot more capable than dependable than
the one you had even five years ago but
if it’s true that we’ve become more
confident over time and if competence
were more important and shouldn’t trust
be increasing should the lines on all
those charts be going upwards but
they’re not and this leads me to the
conclusion that what’s responsible for
the dramatic decline in people’s
willingness to trust has more to do with
a lapse of sincerity than a lapse of
competence make no mistake both are
important but you build stronger levels
of trust through sincerity than you do
through competence and people are far
more willing to forgive a lapse of
competence than they are a lapse of
sincerity if you want to become trusted
in this new world you need to prove that
you are both competent in your actions
but also more importantly that you are
sincere that you are honest and fair in
becoming trusted is harder than it’s
ever been but in a world where people’s
willingness to trust continues to
decline it’s also never been more
important than it is right now you can
have the best products the best service
the best prices none of that matters if
people don’t trust you 200 milliseconds
that’s how important Trust is thank you
very much [Applause]
second that’s how long it takes us to
size someone up and decide whether
they’re trustworthy 200 milliseconds to
give you some context it takes you 300
milliseconds to blink so literally in
less than a blink of an eye
your brain is already processed all the
information it needs to judge someone’s
trustworthiness why do you think we
humans develop the ability to do this so
quickly well the short answer is that
knowing who to trust
kept our ancestors alive but beyond
survival it also served another very
important function as a species we’re
not that fast we’re not very strong we
can’t fly and we don’t have great vision
or hearing but what we do have is
intelligence and we learned long ago
that if we cooperate if we work together
that we can not only survive but thrive
cooperation became an evolutionary
advantage for us and cooperation
requires trust we humans are social
animals and Trust is the foundation of
human relationships we’ve built our
social structures our economy our entire
society to operate on trusting
relationships with others but I think
each of us understands intuitively that
we don’t trust as much as we used to
that trust has declined and you’re right
it has but I don’t think most people
fully realize just how bad it’s gotten
if you look at the data that measures
trust I think you’ll find it as alarming
a generation ago 78% of us said that we
trusted the federal government today
that number is 18 percent 72 percent of
us said that we trusted the media today
less than a third of us do fewer than
20% of us say that we trust businesses
to do the right thing and the
credibility of CEOs has hit an all-time
low
its recently as 30 years ago fully half
of us agreed that most people could be
trusted today less than a third of us
feel the same way and if you asked
Millennials that number drops to 19
percent and this is not just an American
issue this is a global phenomenon
the folks at Edelman research each year
published their trust barometer where
they interview more than 33,000 people
across 28 different countries tracking
trust in that country’s major
institutions global average for trust
has fallen below 50 percent meaning that
according to Edelman’s classifications
we live in a distrusting world Wow
it’s depressing isn’t it sorry about
what these numbers show is that this
decline in trust is bigger than any
political administration or economic
environment Trust has been declining for
more than 50 years no it’s bigger than
that this change is taking place on a
societal level and it begs the question
when do these numbers fall to the point
where it changes how Trust in our
society works or doesn’t work at what
point do we cross a line well looking at
those numbers it’s not hard to imagine
that that line may very well already be
behind us what is hard to imagine is
that we’re ever going back to the way
that it used to be this is our new
reality this is the new world that we
live in to become trusted in this new
world we need to change the way that we
think about trust we need to re-evaluate
our understanding of what Trust is
and how Trust now works the first thing
that we need to change is this belief
that you have trust until you lose trust
in other words that you will be trusted
unless you prove unworthy of that trust
in a world where people’s willingness to
trust was high the default position was
that you would be trusted he didn’t need
to build trust he just needed to
preserve it because you began each
relationship from a position mutual
trust that’s not the case anymore the
default position is no longer the people
will trust you I think the data shows
that you can no longer assume that this
idea that we’re no longer getting the
benefit of the doubt little
disconcerning isn’t it
feels a little like we’re now guilty
until proven innocent right that’s
because we have a tendency to think of
trust as an either/or proposition that
you’re either trusted or you’re
distrusted but that’s not the case
because trust and distrust are not
opposites in fact the pathways in our
brain that we use for trust are
different from the ones that we use for
distrust we actually process them in
different parts of our brain one is not
merely the absence of the other there’s
a third option a space between trusted
and distrusted I call this space the
trust trough this is where doubt lives
and it lives along a continuum from
uncertainty to skepticism to outright
suspicion the important thing to
understand about the trust trough is
that it is a place of inaction situ
trust is to act in a positive direction
if I trust you you willing to act
towards you positively to embrace your
ideas to support your causes to buy your
products if I distrust you I’m also
willing to act towards you but in a
negative way
I will withhold my support I may warn
others about you I may actively advocate
against you but in the trust trough
there is no action if people don’t trust
they don’t act let me say that again if
people don’t trust they don’t act it was
the Nobel laureate and author Elie
Wiesel who said the opposite of love is
not hate its indifference because to
hate you still need to care well
similarly the opposite of trust is not
distrust
the new default position for trust is
now somewhere in the trust Rafa
you’re not distrusted but you’re not
necessarily trusted either if you want
to become trusted if you want to get
people to act if you want to get them
out of the trust trough you now need to
first prove to them that you are worthy
of their trust it’s no longer about
preserving trust nowadays you need to
actively build trust so how do you do
that well to understand how to build
trust you first need to understand what
Trust is see we have a tendency to think
of trust as a single thing it’s not it’s
actually a pretty complex combination of
judgments and assessments that we make
about someone the Trust has two main
components two sides of a coin if you
will when we use the word trust we’re
usually used in the context of
evaluating either someone’s competence
or their sincerity by competence we mean
are you capable do I believe that you
can do what you claim and are you
dependable you have a history of
fulfilling commitments sincerity means
are you honest do I believe that you
will be truthful with me and are you
fair do I believe that you will act in
good faith and consider my needs in
addition to your own another way to
think about this is that competence
judges someone’s actions while sincerity
so let me ask you this which side is
more important I’ll ask it in a slightly
different way who would you rather deal
with someone who is honest but
incompetent or someone who is competent
but dishonest here’s something else to
consider I think it’s safe to say that
as a society that we’ve become more
competent over time would you agree that
cell phone in your pocket is a heck of a
lot more capable than dependable than
the one you had even five years ago but
if it’s true that we’ve become more
confident over time and if competence
were more important and shouldn’t trust
be increasing should the lines on all
those charts be going upwards but
they’re not and this leads me to the
conclusion that what’s responsible for
the dramatic decline in people’s
willingness to trust has more to do with
a lapse of sincerity than a lapse of
competence make no mistake both are
important but you build stronger levels
of trust through sincerity than you do
through competence and people are far
more willing to forgive a lapse of
competence than they are a lapse of
sincerity if you want to become trusted
in this new world you need to prove that
you are both competent in your actions
but also more importantly that you are
sincere that you are honest and fair in
becoming trusted is harder than it’s
ever been but in a world where people’s
willingness to trust continues to
decline it’s also never been more
important than it is right now you can
have the best products the best service
the best prices none of that matters if
people don’t trust you 200 milliseconds
that’s how important Trust is thank you
very much [Applause]
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