A New WASH Project on the Sources of Trust in Social Relationships

by Bill Creasy

WASH just completed a major project, the Green Book. The book had contributions of essays from several WASH members about various aspects of humanism. With that project complete, I'd like to propose a new project to develop a better understanding about the nature of trust.

Trust is a crucial element of social behavior. No one would act in a cooperative fashion if they didn't trust other people not to take advantage of them. Civilization and the free market economic system wouldn't operate if not for trust between individuals, as well as trust of individuals for government institutions and corporations.

Big, passionate emotions like love or patriotism receive a lot of emphasis, especially in politics. There is a lot of social and religious pressure to support these feelings, for the good of a country or future generations.

In comparison, trust seems to receive little emphasis or attention. People decide on an individual basis who to trust. Often, trust may happen just because it is convenient. For example, a person may want a sandwich, so they walk into the nearest restaurant and order food, trusting that the food will be good even with no information about it.

This kind of routine trust is essential to the modern economy. It isn't possible for any private citizen or business owner to know, personally, even a small fraction of the people that they do business with. The giant shopping businesses like Walmart, with thousands of imported products, have replace the corner grocer or the local farmer. The trust for a faceless corporation rather than a recognized individual has developed during this transition, perhaps from necessity.

In religion, the question of trust is even more puzzling. Some people can have faith and trust in their God with no effort. Atheists, on the other hand, are more skeptical and prefer evidence to trust in an invisible, undetectable being.

With Islam, the situation is more complex because trust in religion is mixed with economics, politics, and culture. Do factions in Iraq distrust each other and fight because of religious differences, or because of political or social conflict? Do poor countries remain poor because the people can't form bonds of trust for free economic exchange? These are questions that are important to understand in order to address these serious issues.

We should try to develop a common sense discussion and consideration of the factors that can foster a feeling of trust. Since trust is decided on a personal level, a complex philosophical or scientific study may not be warranted, although it may be helpful to understand the basic factors. A casual discussion may give a base of ideas that can be developed. It isn't necessary to look for a "magic bullet" to produce trust out of nothing. Instead, by identifying promising approaches, it should be possible to incrementally increase trust by using incentives. Alternately, are there also incentives to make individuals or organizations more trustworthy, so they inspire trust?

WASH can contribute to this discussion. We have a community of members who are interested in discussions of ethical, social, and religious topics. WASH chapters can have meeting on the theme of trust. WASHline is always looking for articles and letters contributed by members, and the editors would welcome contributions to discuss the theme of trust. These contributions should be limited to about 700 words due to space limits. These articles can be collected on a special web page for easy reference and comparison. If there is enough interest among members, we may publish another book with longer essays.

WASH should represent intellectual contributions from all our members, not just spokespeople. This project will solicit essays or contributions about what members find trustworthy, or what they find untrustworthy.

The world is too small to take trust for granted, or to expect that cooperation will just happen by itself. It is important for the good of future civilization to begin to understand how to foster trust among different groups.