Re: Trust and Resistance

> What leads you to trust someone?  What leads you not to trust 
> someone?

Like (I believe) most people, I don't trust strangers. If the phone 
rings and it's an unlisted or unknown number, my first reaction is to 
steel myself for yet another encounter with a telemarketing person. 
When I receive email, I generally file as Spam unless it is from a 
person with a name I recognize, or a Subject line that suggests I 
share some sort of genuine connection, however tenuous, with that 
person.

It doesn't take much to establish a connection: "I've heard your name 
from X", "I've read your book/blog/resume/web site", "I'm your next-
door neighbour", etc. I'm also more likely to trust people if they 
look and sound like me.

The above, on reflection, sounds like a different definition of 
"trust" from the one which Ron and Duncan are using when they say "I 
trust people by default". It's something I'm tempted to say, too, but 
that strikes me as obviously false if I take my reaction to 
telemarketers into account.

But I might say "I trust people by default" if I included only people 
I have somehow been introduced to, who I have reason to believe share 
some common interest with me. Expectations count for a lot in this - 
I find it harder to trust people who have been introduced to me as 
"not very trustworthy", though that often says more about the 
introducer than it does about the person in question.

Cheers,

-[Laurent]-
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents
and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents
eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with.
it -- Max Planck




 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/resistance-as-a-resource/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/