Hierarchy of Trust

Last week one of the regular readers of this blog asked me about working with, in her words, a trustless culture. She went on to describe how that people in which she works does not trust anyone. From a Christian perspective, she argued, it is very difficult to work with such a culture as one of the foundations of Christianity is trust and she wanted to know, from an anthropological point of view, how to deal with a non-trust society.

My first thought is a class of deaf missionaries I worked with several years ago. In learning about their culture I was introduced to a “hierarchy of trust.” Without going into detail, their levels of trust is (1) other people born deaf, (2) CODA’s – children of deaf adults, (3) hearing who learned sign language and (4) hearing. Likewise, in the culture where she works there is a hierarchy of trust; starting with the family, then extended family, caste, others. All cultures have a hierarchy of trust, it’s just manifested in different forms. The key to building trust is to understand the trust structure.

My second thought is from Marvin Mayers (Christianity Confronts Culture) who was the dean of missions when I was at Biola University. He had an axiom he called the PQT, which stands for Prior Question of Trust. The PQT states, “Is what I am saying or doing BUILDING or UNDERMING trust?” Great question and one I tell my students often. Learn the questions of culture and one that is vital is the PQT.

My last thought is that trust and reciprocity are very similar. When dealing with economics and culture I use the levels of reciprocity: general reciprocity, equal and negative reciprocity, as an example of how people interact through exchange. General is favor or money returned about the same level, but not calculated. Some societies see favor as a means of exact exchange and calculate every favor, loan or act of service precisely. Negative reciprocity is trying to get something for nothing, which many of my African friends practice. Perhaps this would be true in the hierarchy of trust as well?

Sherwood Lingenfelter, in his new book, LEADING Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationship for Effective Christian Leadership, he reminds us who are in charge of leadership training that trust is the cornerstone of building trust, not the agenda.

“Instead of giving first priority to attaining vision, meeting goals, and productivity, they must rather give highest priority to the formation of a community of trust and then to doing the hard ‘body work” of creating both community and trust.”