The Invisible Glue: Why Without Trust Society Cannot Function

You’re at your favourite market. The air is thick with the scent of ripe fruit, fresh herbs, and smoked fish. You approach a vendor you’ve never met before. You point to a bunch of fruits. She names a price. You don’t have the exact amount on you. You look at her, a perfect stranger, and say the words that make the entire world go round: “I’ll bring the balance tomorrow.”

She nods. She doesn’t know your name. She doesn’t know where you live. But she hands you the plantains, trusting your promise to return. You walk away, your honour intact, a simple transaction complete.

Now, imagine if that wasn’t possible. Imagine if her only response was a sceptical shake of the head. “No credit. Cash only.” Imagine if every single interaction, with everyone from the fruit seller to your own cousin, required a signed contract, a collateral deposit, or a guarantor. Life wouldn’t just be slower; it would grind to a complete and utter halt. That simple, everyday moment reveals a profound truth, without trust society cannot function.

It’s the invisible infrastructure upon which we build our lives. It’s more vital than tarmac roads and more crucial than fibre optic cables. We don’t often stop to think about it, just like we don’t think about the oxygen we breathe, until it’s suddenly in short supply.

The Bedrock of Everything: From Handshakes to Economies

Think about your average day. You wake up and drink water from the tap, trusting that it’s been treated and is safe. You buy a loaf of bread, trusting that the baker didn’t use harmful ingredients. You get on a bus, trusting that the driver is qualified and sober. You send a text message, trusting that the network will deliver it. You accept a paper note as payment, trusting that others will accept its value too.

Every one of these actions is a leap of faith. A leap made possible because of a network of trust that blankets our society. This isn’t just about feeling good; it’s intensely practical. Economists have a term for it: social capital. Societies with high levels of trust have lower costs of doing business. They spend less on lawyers, security, and enforcement because people simply do what they say they will do.

A  study looked at a similar concept across different communities. Researchers dropped wallets filled with money and identification in various cities around the world. The rate at which they were returned was directly correlated to the general level of trust and social cohesion in that area. In high-trust societies, people acted on the shared principle of honesty. In low-trust environments, the wallets were more likely to disappear. This small experiment is a mirror to a larger reality. When trust is low, everything becomes more expensive, slower, and infinitely more complicated.

The Ripple Effect of Broken Trust

What happens when this invisible glue starts to lose its stick? The cracks appear everywhere.

A relative lends a significant amount of money to a friend to start a small business, based on a verbal agreement. The business struggles, and the friend avoids all calls, never repaying the debt. That one breach doesn’t just affect two people. That relative becomes hesitant to help anyone else, even family. A potential entrepreneur is now cut off from a source of capital. A small business that could have employed two or three people never gets off the ground. One broken promise stifles opportunity and growth.

On a larger scale, imagine citizens who deeply distrust their government. If people believe that public funds are being misused, they become far less willing to pay their taxes willingly. This starves the system of resources needed for schools, hospitals, and roads. It creates a vicious cycle: distrust leads to less compliance, which leads to poorer public services, which reinforces the original distrust. It’s a hole that becomes incredibly difficult to climb out of.

This is the high cost of distrust. It’s a tax on every single transaction, a weight that drags on progress, and a barrier that prevents communities from achieving their full potential.

Without Trust Society Cannot Function

In many parts of the world, the biggest barrier for young, brilliant entrepreneurs isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of access. Access to funding, to networks, to mentorship.

Historically, a huge amount of business has been done based on relationships and trust. A bank manager might give a loan to someone because he knows their father and knows the family to be honourable. An investor might back a venture because it was recommended by a trusted friend. This system works well within closed networks but can exclude talented outsiders.

This is where technology, built on a framework of trust, can become a great leveller. Think about it. How does a digital platform work? You download an app to, say, manage your finances or connect with a service provider. You’re essentially trusting a piece of software with your personal information, your hard-earned money, your financial goals.

That’s a massive leap of faith. You’re taking that fruit seller moment and scaling it to a digital universe. The platform, in return, must earn and keep that trust through transparency, security, and consistently delivering on its promises. It can’t be flaky. It can’t be opaque. It has to work, every single time. When it does, it creates a new kind of infrastructure, a digital one that operates on trust. This allows people to transact, save, invest, and grow their opportunities without being limited by their immediate physical network. It formalises the handshake, making it visible, secure, and accessible to many more people.

How We Rebuild Trust

Trust is fragile. It’s built in drops and lost in buckets. But the good news is that it can be rebuilt. It’s a muscle we can strengthen, both individually and as a community.

It starts with small, personal actions:

• Be reliable: Do what you say you will do. If you promise to call at 3 PM, call at 3 PM. If you agree to pay back a loan on the 30th, make it happen. Consistency in small things builds a reputation for trustworthiness in big things.

• Practice transparency: Be clear about your intentions and honest about your limitations. It’s better to say “I’m not sure I can manage that” than to overpromise and underdeliver. Openness prevents misunderstandings and shows respect for the other person.

• Give trust to get trust: This is the hardest part, especially if you’ve been burned before. But extending a little trust first, like that market vendor handing over the fruits, often invites trustworthy behaviour in return. It sets a positive expectation.

On a broader level, we support institutions, businesses, community groups, platforms that prioritise transparency and integrity. We champion leaders who are accountable and who follow through. We choose to engage in systems that are built to be fair and secure. Every time we do this, we deposit a little more trust back into our collective bank account.

You May Ask

How can I trust again after being badly let down?

It’s a difficult and painful process. The key isn’t to blindly trust everyone again, but to become a better judge of character. Start with small, low-risk trusts. Lend a book before you lend money. See if the person returns it and in what condition. Trust is a learning process. Protect your heart, but don’t wall it off completely, as that cuts you off from all the good that trust brings, too.

Isn't a healthy amount of scepticism actually a good thing?

Absolutely. There’s a world of difference between scepticism and cynicism. Scepticism is wise; it means you do your due diligence. You check references, you read the fine print, you ask questions. Cynicism is the belief that no one can be trusted, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to isolation. Smart trust is a balance: hope for the best, but have a plan based on evidence, not just assumption.

Can technology truly create trust, or does it just automate distrust with contracts and security?

Technology on its own doesn’t create trust; it’s a tool. A blockchain ledger or a secure escrow service doesn’t make people more honourable. What it does is create a transparent, unchangeable record of actions. It makes promises visible and holds people accountable. In this way, it enables trust between people who have no prior relationship. It lowers the risk of the trust leap, allowing us to confidently transact with people we’ve never met. The intention to be trustworthy still must come from humans, but technology can provide the safety net that makes that leap possible.

That moment in the market, that simple nod of agreement, is a miniature masterpiece of social collaboration. It’s a tiny thread in the vast, invisible web that holds us all together. From that thread, we weave our economies, our communities, and our shared future.

It’s not a philosophical idea; it’s a practical reality. It’s the reason we can collaborate, innovate, and move forward together. It’s the currency of human connection that doesn’t appear on any balance sheet but without which every other currency is worthless. Let’s not take it for granted.

Let’s nurture it, honour it, and rebuild it wherever we can, one kept promise, one honest interaction, at a time.