The truth about trust : how it determines success in life, love, learning, and more

Can I trust you?

Although it's an important question to answer, we usually fail to recognize just how often in confronts us. Most of us go through our days with little inkling that almost every interaction we face comes with this question attached. Of course we'd like to be able to predict whether we can count on others (or even ourselves), but few of us realize how deeply issues of trust pervade our lives or how powerfully they predict whether we'll flourish or fail.

In The Truth About Trust renowned psychologist David DeSteno not only unveils new insights that help us gauge whether someone is trustworthy, he also brings together the latest research from fields as diverse as psychology, economics, biology, an robotics to create a compelling narrative that reveals some of the surprising ways trust matters. He shows us how trust influences us at every level and at every stage of life. Children, for example, learn and retain knowledge far better when their teacher is someone they trust as opposed to someone they like. If we don't quite trust the one percent, there is a good reason- power, even of a temporary sort, alters calculations for fairness. Trust also influences the long-and short-term considerations that tighten or loosen our romantic bonds. It even affects our ability to care for our own health and well-being (ever wonder why it's sometimes difficult to trust yourself to keep to your diet?). And as we move to an ever more wired world, capacities to use and abuse trust on the Internet to influence our behavior are becoming more sophisticated. To help address these challenges, DeSteno also takes the lid off new research conducted in his own lab that provides the first scientifically verified cues to help us 'read' the trustworthiness of others.

Appealing to readers of Dan Ariely, Daniel Gilbert, and David Eagleman, The Truth About Trust offers a new paradigm that will change not only how you think about trust, but also how you understand, communicate, and make decisions in every area of your life.

Advance praise for The Truth About Trust

'Smart, fun, and informative, The Truth About Trust describes the most frightening, most wonderful, and most human thing we do- putting our fates in someone else's hands. This one's worth reading. Trust me.' Daniel Gilbert, PhD, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard and bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness

'Trusting others puts us at risk. Yet failure to trust entails risk as well. The ability to navigate through this minefield successfully is one of life's most valuable assets. DeSteno provides by far the best account of what science has learned about how we do this. The Truth About Trust is also a terrific read.' Robert H. Frank, PhD, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management at Cornell University and bestselling author of The Economic Naturalist and The Darwin Economy

'The Truth About Trust tackles some of the most important and challenging issues in life. Psychologist David DeSteno takes a fresh look at fundamental questions, from gauging the trustworthiness of others to whether you can trust yourself.' Adam Grant, PhD, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author of Give and Take