In a world dominated by the sense of individuality, ideas like responsibility and trust have become more difficult than ever. As societies change from collectivities to aggregations of individualities, on the one hand a person is freer to choose and express themselves. On the other hand, complexity increases, which requires the development of new skills. Trust is one such a skill, which helps us reduce the complexity of life. This happens because although trust requires taking risks, in the same time it makes everything simpler. Simplicity helps us in turn take responsibilities.
Trying to examine how trust affects our everyday life, cooperations at work would be impossible if the factor of trust is missing. When I can’t trust my partners, the only way to relieve my inner insecurity is to check. The extensive and sustained effort to control is exhausting for the individual and makes it impossible to meaningfully share information and opinions with others. It is an exhausting process, since we expect ourselves to be able to control functions, that are not in our control. The more we try to achieve this, the more we sink into a feeling that we can’t control anything. Like the swing of a pendulum, the more we try to take control, the more we tend to reach the other edge, where we feel that we are no longer in control of ourselves. Avoiding any responsibility is then the only way. When a person considers themselves as the most powerful and therefore as responsible for everything, sooner or later they will end up in resignation and exhaustion. The burnout syndrome that usually burdens over-responsible people can also be seen as persons’ ultimate effort to quit from the great responsibility that they have undertaken.
“I need to control everything because I can’t rely on the others in order to have good results in our assignment”.
- X. Student of Democritus University of Thrace, 22 years old
Trust as a limitation of complexity
Since, as mentioned above, it is not possible to control the behavior of other people, order can be succeeded in developing inner sense of safety. This sense can also be the foundation of trust. That means that instead of trying to change the conditions and the other people try to change our perception which is ours. Trust offers relationships the ability to manage a risk or an insecurity. It allows us to make safe choices in risky situations. Knowledge is replaced by expectations. Expectations relate to something that exists only in the future. I cannot predict how someone will behave, what will make me feel better is trusting them.
“Giving a chance to a relationship means that the other person will have to prove me it’s worth doing it. I cannot change anything to me, the others will have to if they want to be close to me.”
- P. Student of Democritus University of Thrace, 23 years old
It is widely believed that trust is earned. This would mean that we play it safe and avoid risks, since we associate trust with something that the other person has to prove to us. Trust is always associated to a risk, otherwise it would be an expectation of continuity or a habit. By offering my trust to someone I choose to take a risk and therefore take the responsibility for my choice. A deeper sense of trust in me is therefore a prerequisite.