The Trust Foundation Understanding trust issues in the digital era.

[This is another highlight from our Knowledge@Wharton series focusing on trust issues.]

"...trust harmed by untrustworthy behavior can be effectively restored when individuals observe a consistent series of trustworthy actions...making a promise to change behavior can help speed up the trust recovery process."

Do you remember when James Frey, author of the supposed non-fiction book, A Million Little Pieces, was publicly chastised in front of millions of viewers by television host Oprah Winfrey for fabricating details of his book and misrepresenting the truth?

"The extent to which I do or do not trust you is a function not only of how trusting a person I am and what I know about you, but also a function of irrelevant events that have influenced my emotional state. For example, if I hit a parked car, argued with my spouse, learned that I have to pay a large repair bill (or won an award, had a paper accepted, or saw my stock account grow) beforehand, I would trust you less (or more). The main idea...is that emotions which are irrelevant to the judgment task nevertheless influence trust judgments in predictable ways."

"Should people who have done little or no business together trust one another? "

When people blog about issues of trust online, the dialogue and debate often turns into an exchange of personal opinion rather than an objective analysis of solid facts. This post is the first in a series of posts on exciting findings about trust identified via actual trust research conducted at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.