In order to be trustworthy, raise proper expectations

In a global and interconnected society that shares questions and abounds in solutions, the question is not only what to trust, but also who to trust. This problem has become particularly acute as a result of the crisis of authority that many sectors and organizations are experiencing.

This crisis has led, among other things, to an accelerated interest in recent years in the academic world to know better those intangible values that strengthen relationships; values such as reputation, credibility, transparency and trust. The last value mentioned—trust—has attracted the attention of many scholars. One of them is Katherine Hawley, professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Her most recent work, entitled ‘How to be Trustworthy’, is a reflection on the mechanisms that lead us to place our trust and to respond appropriately when others trust us, even on those occasions when we do not deserve it or do not want to take on that responsibility.

As the author explains, her initial intention was to publish a volume focused on trust, a concept that she understands as ‘a leap in the dark’, an acceptance of risk in exchange for the promises made by people, groups or even things. However, as her reflection matured, different questions arose: How is it possible to be trustworthy, that is, to get others to accept that risk with regard to you? How to do it in particularly difficult circumstances? What happens if someone trusts us for something we are not capable of? In the end, trustworthiness—that is, not the action of trusting but the ability to receive the trust of others—became the central theme of this study.

In the first chapter of the six that make up this work, Hawley explains the terms in which she understands trust and trustworthiness, which she links to the concept of commitment: ‘To trust someone to do something is to believe that she has a commitment to doing it, and to rely upon her to meet that commitment’ (9).

In chapters 2 and 3, Hawley explores how these commitments are made explicit, through promising and telling. Promise-making is the most explicit mechanism through which we take on new commitments, and should be characterized by sincerity and competence. By joining the concept of trustworthiness to that of commitment, Hawley emphasizes that those who wish to be reliable have an important responsibility in the expectations they generate: ‘What do good promisors do? They keep their promises. But not only this: they make the right promises in the first place’ (27). In fact, losses of trust often have their origin in excessively ambitious or naive promises, made perhaps with good intentions. Knowing one’s own competence or ability is a fundamental requirement for deserving trust. As for telling, to verbalize a promise, the author argues that it contributes to trustworthiness to speak truthfully and to offer reliable information to others. To this end, the rules of honesty and competence (telling the truth and doing so clearly) can serve as guidelines.

Trustworthiness is the central theme of chapter 4. Having made a promise, trustworthiness requires that one match commitment with action. In this sense, trustworthiness grows as soon as one is faithful to a commitment, a goal that can be aspired to in ourselves or demanded of others. However, Hawley insists on a rather negative perspective: for her, first of all, ‘to be trustworthy we need to avoid unfulfilled commitments’ (95). She therefore highlights on many occasions that prudence is a key element: a trustworthy person is particularly good at managing her commitments. She will take care not to over-commit, to ensure that she can fulfil the commitments she does undertake.

This is why commitments that others attach to us or that we accept without measuring our capabilities well can be an obstacle to growing in reliability. Trustworthiness requires us to avoid unfulfilled commitments and broken promises. But where others misunderstand a person’s commitments, they may mistakenly regard her as untrustworthy for not acting as they expect. In Hawley’s view, this really is a mistake: being trustworthy does not mean living up to other people’s expectations. Unwanted trust can be a burden. Even when people have the capacity to live up to our expectations, doing so can distort their own priorities, big or small. If we would apply this reasoning to the Catholic Church, one could think, for example, of those situations where an opinion or judgment on political issues is expected of the Church, an expectation that can generate tensions within her, sometimes preventing her voice from being relevant in more pertinent matters, such as spiritual or social ones. However, when a subject wishes to escape from an unwanted trust, he is often unfairly judged to be unreliable. There is always the possibility of inspiring trust by going with the flow, trying to conform to others’ expectations whether they are reasonable or not. But that—Hawley acknowledges—will soon lead to disaster, as we try to jump in several different directions at once.

Having defined the general framework, Hawley addresses in chapters 5 and 6 what happens when difficult circumstances (social environment, location, lack of material resources…)—even those beyond our control—may make it difficult to demonstrate reliability, be aware of our competencies or know the commitments made. Between the extremes of fear of failure and foolish promises, the author suggests that we must muddle along in the middle, trying to say a clear ‘no’ when that’s important, yet acknowledging that we cannot always control what commitments we incur, nor micro-manage other people’s opinions of us. In the face of the impossibility of creating recipes to be reliable, ‘one option is to be clear and careful to a fault about exactly which commitments we’re taking on, and which we reject’. And perhaps this is the most important lesson for communicators: generate expectations based on clear commitments.

The book builds a very orderly and systematic discourse. The author makes frequent and useful recapitulations to ensure that the reader follows her reasoning and accompanies her in the reflection. In addition, she draws on numerous examples from ordinary life in which we place or receive the trust of others (e.g., Our daughter tells us that she trusts her best friend to take her home after a party, because he has promised her. Do we trust the young man’s promise?). ‘How to be Trustworthy’ follows other publications by the same author on the subject—e.g. Trust, a very short introduction (Hawley 2012) and Trustworthy Groups and Organisations (Hawley 2017), to name a couple. Her knowledge and mastery of academic reflection on this concept is demonstrated in the extensive and valuable bibliography that closes each of the chapters, and which is presented in order according to the main arguments discussed in the preceding pages.

Juan Narbona
School of Church Communications, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Italy
[email protected]