Imagine the hardest thing that you’ve recently done. Maybe you took a really difficult math test last week, or maybe you had to throw out old stuffed animals that had countless memories attached to them. Although it’s different for everyone, many people can answer this question with just two words: trusting others. We trust people all the time in our day-to-day lives: people we love, people we care about, people that matter to us. But there is so much to this simple human action that people often overlook. Where does trust come from? And why do we sometimes find ourselves putting all our faith in one person?

The concept of trust itself doesn’t just revolve around keeping secrets or telling someone personal information; to trust is to rely on someone without fear of being exploited. People build trust toward others in a number of ways, such as through showing empathy, being transparent about one’s actions or intentions, and being vulnerable. However, these factors are not always the direct gateway to earning someone’s confidence. Building trust with an individual takes time and consistency, but putting in all that effort does not go unnoticed. Research shows that consistent positive interactions with others are significant contributors to building trust as well. Several experiences of feeling happy around someone release oxytocin, a crucial hormone responsible for bonding with others. In the same way, trusting someone makes you more inclined to feel safe and secure around them, thus increasing one’s a sense of comfort. A positive feedback loop is created here; trusting someone makes you feel good, and feeling good around someone makes you trust them. This can relax us, boost immunity, as well as lower anxiety or stress in day-to-day life; in turn, this lessens the chances of severe health repercussions associated with stress, like heart disease or diabetes. 

 Trusting one person can completely change our interactions with other people as well. Changes in social behavior are often a reflection of past relationships with others and how they impacted someone after the relationship was over. People are shown to be generally more generous, cooperative, and caring toward others when experiencing high levels of oxytocin, the aforementioned trust hormone. However, trust can be very fragile to maintain or hold on to. It can devastate an individual to find out that their trust was misplaced, leading to something commonly seen in society today: trust issues. Those with trust issues often have much more negative interactions with others, displaying signs of aggression or social isolation. They are less likely to be open and interactive with others due to their distrust of people and can even be described as rude or cold. In other words, broken trust–or a lack thereof–creates a cynical mindset that causes defensive behavior and a decrease in cooperation among individuals. 

Although building trust isn’t easy, it plays a crucial role in improving the quality of our everyday lives. From our health to our interactions with others, having the assurance that you can rely on someone and feel comfortable around them is important in creating healthy mindsets and relationships with others; the rewards of such trusting relationships are sure to stay with an individual throughout their life.