Trust is not an immovable mountain. It is an edifice, built brick by brick. Pull out enough bricks and it will start to wobble. The world is currently in a crisis of trust, which helps to explain why “affective polarisation” — hating the people on the other side of the fence — has become extreme. In countries where this is an issue, people now have few or no news sources which they share in common.
One of the last information sources that transcends those divides and is used by all in common is Wikipedia. If Wikipedia becomes yet another casualty in the culture war — trusted as “one of us” by some, scorned by others as “one of them” — people will lose one of their last sources of shared facts. And what happens when people can no longer agree even on basic facts? Christiane Amanpour, the CNN International host who has been everywhere and seen everything, from war zones to refugee camps and palaces, is (which is rare) respected across the political spectrum. She is terrified by the thought of what happens to a society that can no longer agree what the facts are. “Our democracies will fall unless we accept that there is a basic set of facts that are indisputable,” she told me. “Afterwards, people can think and do whatever they want with that basic set of facts.”
If there are no shared facts, we will return to living the way people lived through much of human history prior to the Enlightenment — divided into tribes that think everyone who isn’t in their tribe is a heretic who must be crushed. When people think like that, a diverse, open, free, democratic society is impossible. That is the future I fear. But don’t give up. We’ve overcome much worse times in the past.
Simple ideas we can all try
Drawing on what Wikipedia has taught me about trust, I have developed some ideas I think are worth trying. My first idea is the simplest, and includes ideas we can all try.
Everyone knows how important a healthy heart is, but if your heart is healthy and your life is busy, do you think about the health of your heart? Do you worry about what your lack of exercise and bad eating habits are doing to your heart? Maybe when your doctor reminds you. Otherwise, no. Life is too busy! That’s the story with trust. Like a healthy heart, we all know trust is critical to everything good in our lives. But we seldom think of it. That is dangerous. We must stop taking trust for granted.
With that in mind, my idea is that every organisation, from corner store to national government, should take a “trust inventory”. People should get together and ask a simple question: “Whose trust is essential for our organisation to succeed?” That is the first, critical step to no longer taking trust for granted. Ask: “What are we doing now that is limiting trust? How can we do better?”
If there are no shared facts, we will return to the way people lived through much of human history prior to the Enlightenment
Remember, transparency builds trust. Misinformation and disinformation are major concerns today, and in many places around the world, proposed solutions involve censorship of social media platforms. That makes some superficial sense. But ask the question: “How could that affect trust?” Answer: censorship would almost inevitably lead many people to think the authorities don’t trust them, or worse, that they are actively hiding information from them. That would be poisonous to the public’s trust in government that is essential in a democracy. Be aware that trust is crucial.
No power is needed to offer trust
You also need to give trust. As with open-source software, Wikipedia was built on an initial act of trust. Uber gives trust. Juries give trust. When a handful of randomly selected people are chosen to judge something as serious as an accusation of murder, the message is: “We trust you.” Most people take that very seriously. That’s why juries generally work quite well. Now think about democracy itself. Authoritarian governments are saying: “We don’t trust you.” Democratic governments that do put control in the hands of voters say: “We trust you.” So it is no surprise that political scientists have found that trust and democracy are strongly correlated. So: boost democracy by boosting trust.
Ireland has had amazing success bringing together randomly selected citizens for Citizens’ Assemblies. These assemblies gather research, hear from experts, debate and make recommendations. They have helped Ireland tackle some of the toughest issues, from constitutional reform to abortion. Lots of other countries from Belgium to Iceland have tried something similar. There are many reasons to try these experiments in democracy, but for our purposes they could be invaluable because they get people from opposed camps to talk and worth together while simultaneously sending a message to the wider public: “We trust you.”
The best thing about offering trust is that anyone can do it. You don’t need to be a corporate or government official. You don’t need to have any power at all. So: talk to people. Ask what they think. Ask why. Be more interested in learning than judging. Offer to work on something together. When you do that, you are offering the three magic words:
“I trust you.” We can all do that. If there’s one thing Wikipedia has shown the world, it’s that lots of little acts, by lots of open and curious people, can really add up, and eventually become something big and wonderful. So let’s dare to dream again.
This is an edited extract from The Seven Rules of Trust: Why it is Today’s Most Essential Superpower by Jimmy Wales (out now, Bloomsbury)
