TRUST IN CRISIS
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Because if we don’t – if we misunderstand the problem, or understand the wrong problem, or have differing understandings of the right problem – then all of our efforts will be wasted.
In short, any effort to increase trust should start with the foundational questions.
1. What is trust?
2. How can we (re)build trust? (If at all.)
3. What are the elements or components of trust that we should aim to deploy/highlight/communicate in our (content) marketing practices?
4. How do we know if we’re making progress?
at it ” argument: Basically
But, Really. What Is Trust?
Here’s a nice definition of trust from the scholars Claire A. Hill and Erin Ann O’Hara:
“Trust is a state of mind that enables its possessor to be willing to make herself vulnerable to another—that is, to rely on another despite a positive risk that the other will act in a way that can harm the trustee.”
The most important elements here are, first, that trust is a state of mind – that is an attitude held by the truster about the trustee. (So in a commercial relationship, it is an attitude the buyer, or perhaps a commercial partner like a dealer, has about the seller or brand.)
Then, trust involves vulnerability and a passage into an uncertain future. The other “will act,” but how they will act is not known.
The Two Vectors Of Trust
These are what I call the two “vectors” of trust – uncertainty and vulnerability. Both of these must be in play for a trust relationship to occur. If you can be certain of the outcome, then there is no reason to trust.
(Side note: This is why I have a big problem with people claiming that blockchains or other distributed ledger technologies “create trust.”
Trust is "a confident relation to an uncertain future"
~ Rachel Botsman