Trust is absolutely essential for our ability to cooperate with other people, to get anything done, to move around in the world at all.
About Tiffany Watt Smith
I am an author and historian of emotions. I write about the cultural and historical forces that shape our most intimate worlds. I have won multiple awards for my research and writing, including grants from Wellcome Trust, the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I am the 2018 Philip Leverhulme Prize winner.
I am Reader (emerita) at the School of Arts, Queen Mary University of London, where I taught for fifteen years and directed its Centre for the History of Emotions. In 2024, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Key Points
•Trust is often misunderstood as a purely rational process, but it is fundamentally emotional, involving vulnerability and uncertainty.
• Its meaning has evolved historically – from religious faith to interpersonal reliance – especially with the rise of modern urban life and complex societies.
• Cultural and gender norms shape how trust is built and expressed, with contrasting expectations for men and women and across different societies.
• In some cultures, like Korea, trust is cultivated not through evidence but through ongoing acts of care and mutual attentiveness.

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