Trust me!

SOURCE: A Life without Fear by Alix Spiegel, heard this morning on NPR's Morning Edition.

My students are now wrestling with a concept paper, based on the This I Believe essays. When defining what a belief might be, the word "trust" always enters the discussion. What has not been a part of that dialogue? that trust might perhaps have biological connections.

I have learned today of Williams Syndrome, "a genetic disorder with a number of symptoms. Children with Williams are often physically small and frequently have developmental delays. But also, kids and adults with Williams love people, and they are literally pathologically trusting. They have no social fear. Researchers theorize that this is probably because of a problem in their limbic system, the part of the brain that regulates emotion. There appears to be a disregulation in one of the chemicals (oxytocin) that signals when to trust and when to distrust."

The article sums this up by stating that those with this disorder are find it "biologically impossible" to distrust.

The comments from listeners were enlightening at the site, and I encourage anyone reading this post to stray over there, too. I'd entertained most-every angle before I delved into the commentary. Just to engage your interest, think about this:

• What if we were supposed to be that way and have morphed into the animal we are now?
• Regulating oxytocin can be done w/nose spray--should we be worried?
• It's sad we find people with Williams syndrome to be the anomalies.
• Kids are not even as trusting as those with Williams!

We talk all around trust, even about how to build it...yet it is intangible. Trust is one of those fleeting emotions that is so easily vaporized by one dirty deed, one politically incorrect utterance. It's something that so many people have so very little of. It can easily be snuffed by cynicism. "Too much trust" is gullibility.

For me, it's one of the better emotions. I am always trusting too much, and I'm always trying to engage the trust of others (something I am too good at). Of virtues, it seems one of the best, and yet one that is utterly dependent on interaction with others. I might be wise or strong or quick or handsome in a cave all by myself, but to trust or be trusted, well, I'd need a cave bear at any rate.

I am digressing. I know. I am dodging around the deeper emotions this whole story about 9 year old Jessica and her absolute trust (aka innocence) brings to bear. I've shared before how very much I am in awe of children and their purity, their unconditional love. This piece just is a different angle on that same idea, bringing it right down to biology.

Also, don't miss this, which features how one might use Oxytocin trust spray hormone on college students and how this chemical imbalance might affect trust in government: When The 'Trust Hormone' Is Out Of Balance April 22, 2010 (...which even ties in one of my favorite writings by Robert Putman, "Bowling Alone."