How to Gain Trust

Great tip from Wired magazine’s November 2011 edition:

Gain Trust

Trust is something you earn. And to earn it, you must slowly and painstakingly build a relationship based on mutual admiration and respect. Only kidding! Trust can totally be faked. The key, as researchers at Vrije University Amsterdam discovered, is in convincing others that you have a high level of self-control. The researchers conducted a series of experiments on married couples as well as complete strangers in an effort to determine how trust forms. In each instance, people who exhibited self-control—who decided against buying CDs when they were short on cash, for example, or who showed up at places on time—were deemed trustworthy. So if you want people to trust you, just tell someone you are on a diet, then pass on dessert. Or promise to do a favor for them, then do it. And be on time. It works. Trust us. —Erin Biba