We explain what trust is, what it can be deposited in and what types exist. Also, examples of confidence in everyday life.
What is trust?
When we speak of trust (from Latin with-, “Together and fidere, “Faith” or “loyalty”), we generally refer to the possibility of believing that another person, or a group of them, will act in the appropriate way in our absence, that is, they will not disappoint or deceive us, nor do they need our supervision and vigilance.
Understood in this way, trust is a hypothesis about the behavior of another, which may be enhanced or diminished depending on your actions and reactions.
At the same time, trust is a form of familiarity, that is, of closeness produced by the security that one has in the actions of the other. Therefore, it is one of the essential requirements for a close affective relationship, be it loving, affectionate or simply friendly.
Thus, while responsibility, fidelity and predictability contribute to it, lies, betrayals and erratic or unpredictable behaviors do so with the opposite situation, known as mistrust.
One can have confidence in institutions and organizations, especially those that wield a certain type of power, such as governments. Opinion polls are often interpreted as a measure of the trust that people place at any given moment in those who lead the nation’s destiny.
Secondly, the level of confidence we place in ourselves tends to lead 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.
In conclusion, given that human beings are not 100% transparent about what we think and feel, but deep down we are a bit mysterious to each other, trust is considered an emotional and psychological value.
Trust types
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 grant to our close relatives from the outset, even before understanding it on a rational level. That is why then we must 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 the one that is innate and natural to us, that we fully and absolutely grant from the start. It is part of the social learning of our species, which over the millennia has prospered based on working together.
- Trust nurtured. It is one that requires reinforcements and stimuli to forge and cement itself, and that is molded throughout life according to lived experiences. 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 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 the 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 in love who confide their secrets intimate, for 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 older children because they have enough self-confidence, that is, they feel they can rise to the challenge.
- Parents who trust their children They allow them a greater load of personal freedoms, since they are convinced that they were educated in a responsible way.