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In Praise of Skepticism
In Praise of Skepticism
Trust but Verify
P I P PA N O R R I S
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197530108.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by Lakeside Book Company, United States of America
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Contents
PA RT I . I N T R O DU C T IO N
1. Two Faces of Trust 3
2. The General Theory of Skeptical Trust 26
3. Evidence 52
PA RT I I . W HAT C AU SE S T RU ST ?
4. Comparing Trends in Trust Worldwide 97
5. Competency 136
6. Integrity and Impartiality 169
PA RT I I I . C O N C LU SIO N S
7. In Praise of Skepticism 201
Notes 233
Select Bibliography 273
Index 295
List of Figures
posts weaken herd immunity, putting lives at risk. Faith in Q-Anon con-
spiracy theories triggered a violent insurrection attacking the US Capitol.
Equally disastrous consequences can follow from gullible belief in fake
Covid-19 cures like ingesting bleach and the Ivermectin anti-parasitic drug
for livestock, investing life savings in Madoff pyramid schemes, Putin’s
claims to denazify Ukraine, or the Big Lie about pervasive electoral fraud in
America. Trust also has a dark side.2 Habitual faith in the rectitude of author-
ities such as bad cops, disgraced priests, and quack physicians is foolish, at
best, and dangerous, at worst. The tale of the scorpion and the frog teaches
children to beware of strangers. Flawed judgments of trustworthiness are
closely related to more general problems of misinformation, where theories
of motivated reasoning by cognitive psychologists suggest that citizens often
actively seek to reject contrary facts which challenge their preconceived
beliefs, while accepting confirmatory evidence to buttress their views.3 Like
faith in many other types of misinformation, trust in the untrustworthy often
has malign consequences; after all, thousands of unvaccinated Americans
died from Covid-19 after betting on conspiracy theories over scientific evi-
dence presented by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
What is “trustworthiness”? This book distinguishes between trust
as a quality of the individual and trustworthiness as a feature of dyadic
relationships. The study focuses on “trustworthiness,” defined as an informal
social contract where principals authorize agents to act on their behalf in the
expectation that the agent will fulfill their responsibilities with competency, in-
tegrity, and impartiality despite conditions of risk and uncertainty. This con-
ceptualization emphasizes that trustworthiness is not about you or me—it
is about us.4 Trust delegates actions both to agents (individuals) as well as to
agencies (institutions). Are friends and neighbors likely to help in a family
crisis? Will parties keep their promises? Will the police keep us safe? Will
vaccinations work? Will foreign countries honor multilateral treaties? And
in cases where agents and agencies fail to fulfill their responsibilities, will ef-
fective accountability mechanisms and institutional warranties protect my
interests anyway? Will I get refunds for broken products? Will physicians
lose their license for gross misconduct? Will elections or impeachment kick
out incompetent leaders? Will states violating international human rights
treaties face sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council? If these sorts
of judgments are positive, then it makes sense to authorize agents to act on
our behalf, whether for individuals to hire the professional services of a de-
fense attorney or heart surgeon, for customers to deposit their life savings in
Two Faces of Trust 5
a bank or brokerage account, for voters to re-elect politicians, and for coun-
tries to sign bilateral trade agreements with other states.
I. Types of Judgments
the same when struggling to calculate whether someone (an agent) or some-
thing (an agency) will probably prove trustworthy.
This book focuses on understanding the reasons underlying types of
perceptual bias in judgments of trustworthy relationships, where decision
errors are understood as a mismatch between assessments of the likely future
actions of somebody (an individual agent) or something (a collective agency),
and the safeguards protecting against betrayal, compared with indicators of
whether agents will actually fulfill their responsibilities, and the strength of
accountability mechanisms guarding against failure to do so. Whether our
judgments of trustworthiness reflect the true and accurate state of the world
is the central concern of this book. The problem is that we can and do com-
monly make wrong predictions, for multiple reasons, and thereby risk being
defrauded by smooth-talking con men, swindled by seasoned liars, and
duped by silver-tongued demagogues. It’s easy to fall victim to propaganda
from foreign enemies, misinformation from the internet, or faux promises
of quack cures. Limits on our rationality, information, and cognitive capac-
ities lead to erroneous beliefs which either underestimate trustworthiness
(generating cynical biases) or else overestimating it (producing credulous
biases). The theory developed in this book predicts that accurate estimates
of trustworthiness—subsequently confirmed as true—are most likely to be
strengthened by several conditions which commonly facilitate informed
decision-making in multiple contexts. Open societies provide environments
with multiple channels of communications and “two-sided” sources of al-
ternative viewpoints, expanding access to diverse opinions, sources of evi-
dence, and independent news media. This is most likely to avoid information
echo-chambers most common in closed societies which repress freedom
of expression, use state censorship, and limit critical voices. Adherence to
legacy cultural values and attitudes in any society are also expected to play
a negative role through affective feelings and adherence to fixed ideolog-
ical convictions which fail to be updated in the light of contemporary per-
formance. Finally, education is likely to prove important by facilitating the
cognitive abilities, reasoning skills, literacy and numeracy proficiencies, and
prior knowledge facilitating the individual capacity for critical deliberation
and rational decision-making. Propositions flowing from this core argument
are tested against empirical evidence in over 100 diverse societies around the
globe, using the rich resources from the pooled time-series European Values
Survey/World Values Survey (EVS/WVS), conducted in seven waves from
1981 to 2021. This massive data set draws upon interviews with over 650,000
Two Faces of Trust 7
Negative Positive
PERFORMANCE
BY AGENCY
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Fashions Direct from Paris.
Needlework Patterns from Berlin, Brussels, and
Paris.
Full-sized Patterns of Fashionable Dresses, Jackets,
Mantles, &c.
New Books, Pieces of Music, What to Buy, and Where
to Shop.
Our Drawing-Room, &c., &c.
Uniform with “Beeton’s Book of Birds,” cloth elegant, gilt edges, price
3s. 6d.
BEETON’S BOOK OF POULTRY AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
Showing How to Rear and Manage in Sickness and in Health—
Pigeons, Poultry, Ducks, Turkeys, Geese, Rabbits, Dogs, Cats,
Squirrels, Fancy Mice, Tortoises, Bees, Silkworms, Ponies,
Donkeys, Inhabitants of the Aquarium, &c. &c.
⁂ This Volume contains upwards of One Hundred Engravings, and
Five Coloured Plates from Water-Colour Drawings by Harrison
Weir.
Just published, New and Revised Edition, crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s.
6d.
A MILLION OF FACTS of Correct Data and Elementary Information
in the Entire Circle of the Sciences, and on all Subjects of
Speculation and Practice. Much Enlarged, and Carefully
Revised and Improved, and brought down to the Present Year.
A large amount of new matter added.
⁂ With an Elaborate Index to the Volume.
Just Ready.
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