Trust

A high score is not naivety, and a low score is not cynicism as a flaw. Trusting people are often right, because most people are trustworthy; distrustful people are harder to deceive. The facet measures the default assumption, which each person then adjusts to the evidence.

A low score does not mean a person is untrustworthy themselves. Trust and trustworthiness are different things and only loosely related.

Four items make a short scale. A facet score moves more between attempts than the 24-item domain score, and it describes a tendency in ordinary life as the person reports it, not a diagnosis of anything.

High. People high on this facet say they trust others, believe that others have good intentions and trust what people say. In daily life that shows as lending without a second thought, taking a story as told, assuming the late reply was an accident, and being surprised when let down.

Low. People low on this facet say they distrust people and doubt what they are told. In daily life that shows as checking the small print, waiting to see what someone does before believing what they say, and keeping a little back until people have proved themselves. Low scorers are rarely conned.

• Agreeableness: the broad trait this facet belongs to, with five sibling facets.

A survey measure of the propensity to trust predicted how much people actually handed to a stranger in a trust game, and trust and trustworthiness proved to be distinct. (Evans and Revelle, 2008)

Agreeableness rises on average through adulthood, especially after fifty. (Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006)

• Morality
• Altruism
• Cooperation
• Modesty
• Sympathy