A recent visit to a new auto mechanic (for an expensive repair) got me thinking about trust. How do you decide to trust someone? Once you get to know a person that decision does get easier, but what about the people you’re unfamiliar with, or those you are unable to get to know? There are a lot of people in our lives we must trust, even though we have very limited information about them. Having to decide if the car mechanic is trying to rip you off, if your doctor is the best qualified to treat you or if a certain politician is the best leader can be very difficult.

With the mechanic I dealt with last week, it came down to a gut feeling I had after speaking with him. With politicians I suppose we should try to find out as much information about them as we can. Unfortunately, their commercials and the 30 second sound-bites on the news are a lot easier to come by than in-depth essays about their political philosophies. We are guided to trust a politician (or not to trust their opponent) by the obscene amounts of money they spend on advertising. Is that any way to garner a sense of trust?