The first speaker at TEDxRadboudU is Marc Slors, professor of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition at Radboud University. He starts with an example. His eldest son asked to borrow his laptop. Sure he could have it. But in returning, his son dropped the computer. It broke. Marc had trusted him and this made him vulnerable to the consequences. That’s what trust is: making yourself vulnerable to deception, betrayal, disappointment, etcetera.

But why did we evolve into these vulnerable beings? It is important to notice that trust actually requires no mental activity. We do not think about the things that may betray us. Not thinking about these things gives us the opportunity to think about things that are important to us. Conscious thought costs a lot of energy. So we have to be picky as to what we think about. Trust allows us to be economic with our cognitive capital.

Building a complex society is our main evolutionary success. Trust is a key condition for this. That’s why we teach our children to cultivate trust, without even thinking about this consciously. So when Marc’s son asks again to borrow his new laptop, it’s Marc’s job to say ‘yes, you can have it.’

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