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The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trusting | Aeon Ideas

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is a research scientist at the CNRS (Institut Jean Nicod) in Paris where he works with the Evolution and Social Cognition team. He is the author of The Enigma of Reason (2017), co-authored with Dan Sperber, and Not Born Yesterday (forthcoming, 2020). He lives in Nantes, France. Edited byMarina Benjamin Published in association with Princeton University Press, an Aeon Strategic Partner Members of the Castellers de Barcelona build a human tower in Tarragona, Spain, October 2007. Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty We all know people who have suffered by trusting too much: scammed customers, jilted lovers, shunned friends. Indeed, most of us have been burned by misplaced trust. These personal and vicarious experiences lead us to believe that people are too trusting, often verging on gullibility. In fact, we don’t trust enough. Take data about trust in the United States (the same would be true in most wealthy democratic countries at least). Interpersonal trust, a measure of whether people think othe

Members of the Castellers de Barcelona build a human tower in Tarragona, Spain, October 2007. Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty We all know people who have suffered by trusting too much: scammed customers, jilted lovers, shunned friends. Indeed, most of us have been burned by misplaced trust. These personal and vicarious experiences lead us to believe that people are too trusting, often verging on gullibility. In fact, we don’t trust enough. Take data about trust in the United States (the same would be true in most wealthy democratic countries at least). Interpersonal trust, a measure of whether…

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