M. Todd Henderson on How Technology Will Revolutionize Public Trust

How Technology Will Revolutionize Public Trust

Trust in major institutions seems to be collapsing in America in the era of “fake news,” Russian bots on Facebook and tribal politics. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that about seven in 10 Americans say that trust in society—in government, in each other—is declining. And more than four in 10 Americans think that declining trust is “a very big problem.”

The stakes are high. Research shows a strong correlation between trust and the wealth of a society. Trust enables cooperation, cooperation enables specialization, and specialization drives productivity.

Fortunately, indicators of declining trust miss a deeper reality: While Americans may increasingly distrust many of their institutions, technology is enabling certain kinds of trust at levels seldom before seen in human history.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal