Trust

This past week my car broke down. Naturally, I called a tow truck. About 20 minutes later Mr. Tow Truck showed up, loaded my car up, and whisked it away to an auto shop. As my car was being unloaded at the auto shop, the owner asked me for my name and number, and with few words spoken between us he stated “I will call you Monday” and I went home.

You would look at this scenario and think to yourself “So what, this is normal?” and it is normal which is the amazing part about it.

It is easy to not realize how much trust is built into our everyday lives. I trusted the tow truck company was going to come to my rescue, and that the driver wasn't going to steal my car. I trusted on the drive over to the auto shop that the other cars were going to obey traffic laws and not blow through red lights. I trusted the auto shop owner wasn't going to load my car up in a shipping container and send it to a foreign country. And the auto shop owner trusts that I will pay the bill once the work is complete.

Where does this trust come from? Why are we so trusting?

Humans are inherently trusting. We generally become less trusting over time as we realize that not everyone can be trusted. Like grabbing a cast iron skillter that is hot, you only have to do it once to think twice about handling cast iron in the future.

Now, in terms of why trust is good for society, there are a few major reasons. But the most important, it makes things generally more efficient. When the tow truck driver showed up I didn’t conduct a field sobriety test to prove he wasn't hammered, I didn’t make him pinky promise he wasn’t going to steal my car, I didn’t even ask him for his last name. He just said hi, loaded my car up, and we were on our way. This saved both of us time.

The risk is that by having trust be the default you can get burned. The tow truck driver could have stolen my car and I’d be kicking myself for being so trusting.

So, what are we to do?