Who do you trust? More people than you think. We know about trust among those in our closest relationships, such as friends and family, but we also trust strangers every day in transient relationships on a frequent basis, as well as major institutions that govern our lives across our lifetime. Trust is the oxygen of social life and has tremendous implications. Marriages succeed or fail based on trust. A country’s health depends on trust in medicine and science, and it prospers when their citizens don’t view each other with cynicism. In this talk, I focus, though, on a vexing paradox about trust: Despite trust being essential for social life to thrive—try to have a relationship or run a civilization without it—powerful behavioral theories consider it irrational behavior, and you should never do it. I discuss what research trying to resolve this paradox reveals about the ways the human species manages this multifaceted challenge of trusting each other, allowing life to avoid being nasty, brutish, or short.

About the speaker: David Dunning is Mary Ann and Charles R. Walgreen, Jr., Professor of the Study of Human Understanding, and Professor of Psychology, at the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford and his BA from Michigan State, both in psychology. His expertise is in experimental social psychology, focusing on the psychological processes underlying self-misbelief and social misunderstanding, with applications to economics, medicine, organizations, and the law. His most cited work, supported over the years by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation, and the John F. Templeton Foundation, shows that people typically hold flattering self-opinions that cannot be justified from the objective evidence. He has written short pieces for more general audiences in Scientific American and the New York Times and appeared in the final episode of Adam Ruins Everything. With Justin Kruger, he received the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology and the Society of Experimental Psychology Scientific Impact Award in 2023. In 2025, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.