Trust: A Very Short Introduction

• Explores the concept of trust; a key social and cultural issue
• Draws on a range of disciplines to show how trust is at the centre of many concepts, including biology, psychology, and even game theory
• Reflects on the nature and importance of trust - why do we value it? why do we want to be trusted, rather than distrusted?
• Explores the practical and personal consequences of trusting and being trusted
• Considers the evolutionary aspects of trust and its impacts
• Part of the best-selling Very Short Introductions series - over five million copies sold worldwide

Readership: General readers interested in the topic, along with students and researchers in each of the many disciplines which discuss trust - epistemology, ethics, anthropology, economics, sociology, psychology, and biology.

Katherine Hawley, Professor of Philosophy, University of St Andrews

Katherine Hawley is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and Head of the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies. She is the author of How Things Persist (OUP, 2001) and co-editor of Philosophy of Science Today (with Peter Clark, OUP, 2003).

Prologue: Trust and distrust at the breakfast table
1: What are trust and distrust?
2: Why trust and trustworthiness matter
3: Evolving trust and cooperation
4: Take the money and run
5: Honesty and dishonesty
6: Knowledge and expertise
7: Trust on the internet
8: Institutions, conspiracies, and nations
Afterword: The importance of being trustworthy
References
Further reading