I am a behavioral scientist. That's when I know not to trust someone

Trust is the psychological foundation of the human species. When it's there, you don't think about it much; It's been that way for millions of years. But when it's gone, the cracks begin to emerge and the once solid structures of our relationships and society crumble.

Safe to say that on a societal level, the cracks are starting to show. There is general skepticism in the current climate towards our societal and cultural institutions. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that corporate malfeasance, government corruption, and fake news are upending the social contract and shattering trust en masse.

A general feeling of mistrust in the air inevitably has an effect on our reliability towards others. It goes from "What can I trust?" to "Who can I trust?"

To trust or not to trust?

At this point you may want me to direct this article to: "This is how we can work together to regain trust within our institutions and in each other ".

A beautiful sentiment to be sure. But, a bit pollyannaish, don't you think? And the thing is, there are people you can't trust. In this case, you should be equipped with the right tools to tell friend from foe. It helped our ancestors, it will help you too.

In relationships, trust is involved in two types of scenarios. The first, which is the most obvious, is when someone does something explicit in their behavior to break your trust. They fuck you, throw you under the bus, get caught cheating or lying.

The second scenario is more interesting. These are the most secret scenarios that fly under the trust radar. You know the ones: where you have a "bad feeling" about someone for no particular reason. They didn't do anything to you. But the feeling persists. In these particular cases, deciding whether you can trust someone is less about "knowing" than "feeling".

Something is happening... but what is it?

Detection is not a mystical phenomenon, but a cerebral calculation. The human brain has developed what psychologists call a cheater detection system, a highly sensitive suite of psychological responses that allows us to subconsciously "know" when someone can't be trusted.

The system is constantly on the lookout for subtle clues during a social exchange that could betray a person's true intentions. When enough of these inputs trigger the system, the brain calculates an assessment, leaving you with that "sneaky feeling" that a person can't be trusted.

What are these subtle clues?

Recent research suggests that there are 4 non-verbal behaviors that, when applied together, act as a reliable signal of lack of confidence. According to research, the 4 subtle behaviors include: i) waving hands, ii) touching face, iii) leaning, and iv) crossing arms.

What is essential here is that none of them are predictive of unreliability. As lead researcher Professor David DeSteno comments, "If someone is leaning over, is it because they are leaning away from you or are they having back pain? You can't really tell when it is. is a sign." But as the evidence suggests, all four cues combined predict lack of trust: the more often people perform these sets of actions, the less trustworthy their behavior.

Until the utopian society of total trust is realized, it would be wise of you to know these 4 subtle non-verbal clues. Be on the lookout for them the next time you have that "feeling" about someone. Just make sure the feeling isn't directed at you...and whatever you do, a...