Perceptions of trustworthiness in 33 milliseconds
We all know that building trust is absolutely fundamental if you want to create strong, long-term and collaborative relationships, be that in business or in life.
None of us wants to deal with someone who we think isn’t trustworthy, do we? They could renege on an agreement, tell you a pack of lies to get what they want and even stab you in the back by bad-mouthing you to peers and seniors. Truly ghastly types.
We also know that to build a strong bond of trust takes a long time, perhaps over multiple interactions and with both parties living up to the commitments they’ve made.
But to even have a chance of establishing deep trust, there are some table stakes that you need to be aware of.
So, how can we appear more trustworthy at the start of a conversation?
There’s a difference between perception of trust and actual trustworthiness.
How about this though? Research cited by Dr Abbie Moroño (a notable behavioural psychologist) shows that trustworthiness judgements are made subconsciously within 33 milliseconds!
“Trustworthiness judgements are made subconsciously within 33 milliseconds”
After 100 milliseconds or 5 minutes it remains at the same level.
So, it’s crucial that we enter an interaction appearing trustworthy, especially in negotiations.
Once we make a judgement, we will then collect information to justify and support that judgement, rather than seeking the correct information (yes, this is system 1 thinking in action again).
Nonverbal signals have the power to make that first judgement positive or negative.
The biggest driver of perceived trustworthiness is emotional expressivity and it’s very unconscious.
The first thing you can do to make that first encounter favourable is to smile. It’s the universal display of happiness. When we see a genuine smile we release oxytocin in our own brain, helping us calm down the flight or fight response.
Secondly, the idea of maintaining a “poker face” in a negotiation is very flawed.
Contrary to popular belief, displaying a “poker face” reduces perceived trustworthiness. You’re telling the other person’s unconscious brain that you’re hiding something and you’re untrustworthy. Reducing your ability to have a cooperative interaction with the other person.
But before you think that you can just smile your way to gaining perceived trust, not so fast…
You need to be authentic with your emotions. Saying one thing, while your face is expressing something else will fast undermine your trust-building efforts.
Finally, there are 4 behaviours that indicate that the other party is sceptical about whether they can trust you, these are: face-touching, crossing arms, leaning back, putting hands together.
If you see these nonverbals, you’ll need to intervene to address the trust issue as soon as possible to try and get your “trust account” back in credit.
