Trusting with head or with heart?
Researchers in social psychology differentiate between two kinds of trust – affective and cognitive.
Affective trust is born out of our emotional ties with others, including the security we feel and the confidence we place in others based on the feelings generated by our interactions. ‘Trusting with your heart’. Relationships matter a lot in this type of trusting.
A child’s trust in a parent. The bonding that grows with each interaction deepens the trust incrementally. I love to watch little children hold their parents' hand and walk trustingly wherever they are led.
Our trust in our friends. This is also based on emotions and multiple interactions that help mutual trust take deep root. We tell them our secrets that we don’t trust our parents with 😊
Cognitive trust is based on our knowledge and evidence about those we choose to trust. ’Trusting with your head’. Relationships don’t matter all that much to start with. Reputation is what you rely on.
We ‘trust’ the bank to keep our money safe. Even if we don’t have any relationship with anyone in the bank, we don’t hesitate to put our money in it.
We ‘trust’ the pilot will take us to our destination. Same as above. We don’t know who the pilot is and we don’t question his or her ability to fly us to our destination.
By now, it may be clear that the trust we begin with at work, with our co-workers and leaders is cognitive. We may not know them personally but we begin interactions and eventually start lending and collecting our trust coins with them. If the interactions are positive, over time, relationships are developed. #trust#socialpsychology#trustworthiness
Comments