The Neuroscience Of Mistrust And The Cost To Our Relationships

The neuroscience of mistrust tells us that our brain is designed to detect danger and threatening stimuli. However, in recent years, this mechanism has been refined a little more. Phenomena, such as fake news, for example, are cementing what is now known as the culture of mistrust.

Is it true that we are increasingly distrustful? It is possible. And that this happens does not benefit us. It is true that it is necessary to walk with leaden feet, to have filters to separate the truth from the lie. However, let’s face it, nothing is as sad as a lack of confidence; the one that creates distances between us, those that make us doubt even our institutions and that feed conspiracy theories.

The feeling of mistrust, in addition, generates a wear and tear on our psychological health. This is a reality that is not talked about too much. Because, although our brain has mechanisms to detect risks and threats, its real priority is social connection. We are gregarious creatures, we need the group to survive, to relate, to get excited, to share, to be and to build.

The germ of mistrust causes stress and also raises walls to our connection. Human beings are capable of the best things when they work together, only when we are able to combine synergies and common trust to move forward.

What does the neuroscience of mistrust consist of?

To understand what the neuroscience of mistrust consists of, we will put several examples. We have all fallen into the fake news trap at times. Someone sends us news, we read it, we are surprised, we consider it valid and we share it with someone else. Soon, when we discovered the falsehood, we were touched. It annoys us, it makes us angry, it makes us feel naive.

When this same thing is repeated a few more times, something changes in us. We become skeptical and even less receptive. There, in the bowels of our wonderful brain, something has changed.

On the other hand, much the same happens in our relationships. When someone significant violates our trust we feel a sting that goes beyond anger or annoyance: what we experience is emotional pain.

These two situations show us that, at the brain level, certain variations are orchestrated. Those negative and uncomfortable feelings we feel not only affect our mood.

We can even change our behavior : be more strict when it comes to giving truth to everything we read and also not be so trusting with people to avoid further disappointments. Now, what does neuroscience tell us about mistrust? Let’s see it next.

Trust and mistrust are located in different parts of our brain

We could talk about the trusting brain and the mistrusting brain. The first is located in the area of ​​the prefrontal cortex, an area where processes such as higher thinking, executive functions such as attention, reflection, deduction, the capacity for discernment, empathy are associated …

• Confidence releases powerful neurochemicals like oxytocin in our brain. We are not mistaken if we say that this dimension is one of the most transcendent for the human being. Trusting comforts us, makes us feel good.
• On the other hand, the neuroscience of mistrust tells us that this state starts from a more primitive mechanism. When we experience it, the amygdala and other regions of the limbic system are activated.

• The brain experiences mistrust in the same way as stress, it is a state in which to release cortisol, in which to reduce critical and reflective sense, as well as empathy itself.

Distrust makes us more cautious. However, what also causes in some cases is that this inability to reflect, to reason and see things with a greater perspective tends to block, to more inflexible and even aggressive behavior.

Dimensions that we must attend to in the face of the «culture of mistrust»

Maybe it’s true. It is possible that we live in the midst of a culture of mistrust, that every day we find it difficult to give greater truth to everything we are told, what we read or even what surrounds us. We have pointed out at the beginning: that this happens or that we perceive it that way is something sad and highly negative for society and ourselves.

Therefore, the neuroscience of mistrust tells us that we must reverse this state. Experiencing this sensation has a cost, the brain experiences this sensation as something stressful. Not being able to trust those around us, in what we read daily or in what our leaders or public institutions tell us, puts us in a state of constant uncertainty and discomfort. It is living on the defensive.

That is why we should take into account the following keys.

Reflections on mistrust that we must take into account

• Distrust should focus on a specific situation or a specific person. Those with whom we have experienced the problem, disappointment or deception. But let’s not do it: let’s not generalize just for the sake of it.
• We cannot go through life with an all or nothing approach. People are fallible, society is not perfect, errors exist and all this must be assumed as something normal. Now, the fact that they have failed us once does not mean that the same thing will be repeated every day.

• If you act with distrust you will receive distrust. Our most genuine attitude to others should be trust; only when we trust others will others trust us.
• Don’t get carried away by peer pressure. Often, those around us encourage us to distrust, to close our ears, eyes and hearts to many of the things and people around us. We must avoid conditioning, think for ourselves.

To conclude, nothing is so important in times of difficulty than being able to trust each other. This is a dimension as vital for the human being as is the oxygen or the soil that is under our feet. Therefore, we are able both to generate confidence and to dare to feel it again.