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The Truth About Trust: How It Determines Success In Life, Love, Learning, And More (2014)

by David DeSteno(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1594631239 (ISBN13: 9781594631238)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Hudson Street Press

review 1: Trust is about gambling on your ability to read someone's mind, even if that someone is your future self.When we think people are consistent in their honesty, one can expect to find that it their environment was also constant.Trust isn't just about integrity, but also competence. Without the ability to back it up, it doesn't matter how much one WANTS to do something. Think economic demand (willing AND able to purchase).Generally, children retain information better when they trust the competence of their teacher (domain specific).We implicitly trust people more like us. (social/racial group, etc) [OH YOU DON'T SAY)Relationships eventually move from the exchange-based to communal style. One stops doing mental accounting/scorekeeping and implicitly trusts.Jealousy requires a ... moretriad to be stoked. It requires a (potential) rival to be jealous of. And we're generally more jealous of rivals who are perceived as superior to us in the domains we are proud of, ourselves.Power degrades our trustworthiness while simultaneously sharpening our skills for deceit.Smiles can be decoded as signals of support or malice depending on the social category of the smiler (Max Weisbuch, Nalini Ambady)Technology has the white coat effect of being subconsciously seen as more trustworthy, upon initial assessment.Rationalisation is a process not of perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions. -Ayn RandExamine motives, not reputation. People change to fit the situation they are in.
review 2: I've read many books like Dr. DeSteno's, and I find the oversimplification of some of his theories a bit "too good to be true" (i.e. Several anecdotes are from simplified and isolated tests at sophisticated Ivy League schools) It is a well-written, insightful and interesting read. His argument about biology and evolution does reveal an innate ability in human beings in general. How we operate on a level of resilience and survival of species can be an indicator of our trustworthiness. Yet, I wondered why he didn't use more of today's headlines as examples such as the Bernie Madoff scandal. Here we could ask why smart, altruistic and resilient people like Elie Weisel - a Holocaust survivor mind you- could have fallen prey to someone like Bernie. But if we are to understand this correctly from the book, then we can contribute Weisel's rise to power as a writer and influential leader that led to his self-serving investment to not be a better judge of character by taking his foundation's money and investing in an untrustworthy company? Or was it Weisel was older, fatigued and incapable of better decision making? I'm not sure of any of this, but then again this book left me with more questions than answer. This is why I gave it 3 stars. Therefore, read in blind faith and decide for yourself. less

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