Trust

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In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, citizens' trust in their governments has declined all across Europe, and around the world.

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Denmark, however, stands out as a country where trust levels have increased.

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But why?

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This is the topic of this week's episode + an exploration into the country's remarkable high levels of trust between people.

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We discuss:

• The game theory of strangers trusting other people
• The historical roots of Denmark's strong independent institutions
• What "default trust" feels like to outsiders
• How other countries can encourage trust amongst citizens
• The upsides of trust: efficiency, oxytocin
• The downsides of trust:; how to combat it

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and more broadly an exploration of "the trust dividend" that is felt from a society where the default setting is to trust one another.

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Default trust

The fact that (in general) the default position is to trust strangers is a central principle of Danish culture.

For people who have been in Denmark their whole life, this is one of those things that seems blindingly obvious: if my child is out playing and hurts themselves of course I believe that a stranger will help them out.

But for those new to the country, this can in fact be a bit of a culture shock.

Game theory

If you come from a society where the default is that everyone is out for themselves then it can actually be naïve to assume other people will do the right thing.

As such, people learn that it pays to be selfish (pay the official to fast track your application; steal from a stranger's bag) in order to get by. If everyone does the selfish action, the value to "the greater good" diminishes, even if the individual benefits in the short term.

Denmark has been able to have a society where, on the whole, people act in a way that is good for the whole.

The trust dividend

Doing so yields all sorts of benefits to the country:

• Greater efficiency: less time/ resource needed to monitor actions
• Fewer controlling checks: a culture of trusting people to do the right thing vs filling in forms
• Increased oxytocin: people who get their trust reciprocated get a mental wellbeing boost

As we discuss in the episode, trusting strangers is not without its downsides.

We share examples of Danes who trusted too much when in a "cheating" rather than "collaborative" environment, and also took about the risks (and responses) to people trusting the state/ each other too much.

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Thank yous

A big thanks to our guests for this episode

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• Peter Mühlmann, CEO of Trustpilot
• Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University
• Kathy Borys Siddiqui, Director of Active Action and a Polish/ American expat in Denmark for the past 13 years

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Thanks to ECO Hotels for hosting us at Guldsmeden Hotel in Copenhagen.

Learn more about What The Denmark via @whatthedenmark on Instagram

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A note about this week's picture

The image is of a roadside stand on the Danish island of Bornholm where members of the public are trusted to pay for the items available. (Sam took the pic whilst on holiday there last year to show friends living in other countries)

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