I remember when I was a child in the 60’s people were with rare exception were honest.  I like to think we still are and yet if I believe the numbers this week from the journal Psychological Science, we don’t trust each other like we used to.

I was surprised to read that unlike trust in our government , churches and financial institutions whose trust from us is based more on events that fluctuate our expectations. Adversely, for some reason our trust of our fellow man which should be there until given reason to doubt is slowly draining away for many of us.

According to the General Social Survey today only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted versus back in 1972 half felt that people were basically honest.

Add to that today, approximately forty years later, a record high of nearly two-thirds say "you can't be too careful" in dealing with people.

An AP-GfK poll conducted last month found that Americans are suspicious of each other in everyday encounters. Less than one-third expressed a lot of trust in clerks who swipe their credit cards, drivers on the road, or people they meet when traveling. I think this might be the aftermath of the "ME" generation.

Does it matter? Social scientists say yes it does.  Social trust makes us more likely to work with people and do so for the common good. These scientists believe that trust makes way for economic growth.  Distrust on the other hand promotes corruption cause who does anything good for someone they don’t like or don’t trust. Makes sense when you think about it.

So how do we change the atmosphere? Their opinion is there's no easy fix.

These researchers conclude that how we view others in the avenue of trust is laid firm in our twenties and likely to remain that way without some major unifying event i.e. a war

And although if you’re my age and still have your parents you can see that people do get a little more trusting as they age. We on the other hand if you are a baby boomer like me, started the trend of mistrusting strangers and each generation has started off adulthood less trusting than those who came before them.

their theory,  if you want the world to change think of America’s youth, they are the best hope for creating a more trusting nation. Perhaps all their high-tech gadgets, can bring them together to trust the way previous generations did in simpler times.

My theory, make a conscious choice to earn peoples trust by being honorable and then trust in return.

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