Trust (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what trust is, what it can be placed in and what types exist. Also, examples of trust in everyday life.

What is trust?

When we talk about trust (from the Latin with-, “together”, and fidere“faith” or “loyalty”), we generally refer to the possibility of believing that another person, or a group of people, will act in the appropriate way in our absence, that is, they will not deceive or deceive us, nor do they need our supervision and surveillance.

Understood in this way, trust is a hypothesis about the behavior of another, which can be reinforced or diminished depending on your actions and reactions.

At the same time, trust is a form of familiarity, that is, closeness produced by the security we have in the actions of the other. Therefore, it is one of the essential requirements for a close emotional relationship, whether loving, affectionate or simply friendly.

Thus, while responsibility, fidelity and predictability contribute to it, lies, betrayals and erratic or unpredictable behavior contribute to the opposite situation, known as distrust.

One can have trust in institutions and organizations, especially those that wield certain types of power, such as governments. Opinion polls are usually interpreted as a measure of the trust that people place at a given moment in those who guide the destiny of the nation.

On the other hand, The level of trust we place in ourselves usually gives rise to our self-confidence also understood as our security, and is a fundamental element in the construction of emotionally healthy adult individuals. The absence or fragility of self-confidence is known as insecurity.

Types of trust

In psychology, trust is usually classified as:

Trust in others. That which we deposit in any third party, and that to a certain extent is innate in human beings, that we initially grant to our close relatives, even before understanding it on a rational level. That is why we must then learn to distrust, since other people in the world will not necessarily be faithful to our interests. This trust can, in turn, be of several types:

Simple trust. It is that which is innate and natural to us, that we grant fully and absolutely from the outset. It is part of the social learning of our species, which over the millennia has prospered based on working together.
Trust fueled. It is one that requires reinforcements and stimuli to be forged and cemented, and that is molded throughout life according to the experiences lived. In this sense, it is much more individual than simple and depends directly on the way in which we subjectively process what happens to us.

Self-confidence. This is the name given to the degree of credibility that we give to our own talents, abilities or decisions, which will make us perceive them as adequate (even if they are not). A minimum degree of self-confidence is essential to be able to undertake any project, although excess of it will inevitably lead to error and disappointment. It is a concept related to self-esteem.

Examples of trust

Examples of trust are situations such as the following:

A couple of lovers who trust each other with their secrets intimate, because they trust that the other will not divulge them or use them for their own selfish benefit.
Two business partners do business together because they trust that their economic interests and moral values coincide enough to benefit each other.
A child is encouraged to play a sport against other older children because he has sufficient self-confidence, that is, he feels that he will be able to rise to the challenge.
Parents who trust their children They allow them a greater burden of personal freedoms, because they are convinced that they were educated in a responsible manner.

Continue with: Faith