Speaking For All Mankind

Fascinating story on NPR about the “trust” hormone (oxytocin) and one researcher’s findings that trust in the government is related to the amount of stress someone feels at the time.  According to the study, trust in the government is at an all time low because of the stress people feel due to the recession.  When college students were given a squirt of oxytocin they reported feeling more trusting of other people.  From this trust, they also reported less distrust in the government.

So, by promoting wellness and lowering the national stress level, could the government also be promoting better citizen engagement?

But building trust online is a different process than building trust in the face-to-face world.  Mashable has a great interview with Dr. Judy Olson on creating trust through social networking tools.  As government moves toward openness and collaboration, these can be the basis for an effective trust strategy.