Moving beyond Bonding to Trusting

Design can make it more likely that people trust each other in few very concrete ways:

• Design that eradicates bad moods will lay a strong foundation on which trust in others can build. Designing that improves mood is covered in this article.  Stress has the same undesirable effect on trusting as generally being in a not-so-good mood.
• Want a few people, a team of some sort, to trust each other more? Give them a territory, one that they all own collectively to share.  This might be a team room at work or a bedroom co-owned by a couple of siblings. Can’t create a shared zone?  Have the people you want to trust each other spend more time in close proximity, say sitting next to each other at dinner or in adjoining workspaces, that’ll help seed trusting.
• Being in more familiar sorts of places, not ones that puzzle us and require that we “figure them out” may also increase trust.“Familiar” does not mean that the design is the same as the one that’s previously been encountered, it means that that the design is understandable because it is enough like previous places that we’ve been so we’re not required to put a lot of energy into understanding how we can best live, work, and be ourselves in it.
• Talking face-to-face, in real life, is a powerful way to build trust between people, trust just can’t build to the same extent when people are talking via Zoom or some similar electronic system.
• Smelling lavender in a very, very subtly scented space increases trust among those present.
• People will view each other as more trustworthy when they’re sitting in chairs whose legs are the same length or on the ground, i.e., when their heads are all approximately the same height above the floor when seated. The same goes for when people are all sitting in the same way, say all reclined in Eames chairs. When someone else seems to be mirroring our body posture, we trust them more.
• Another way to increase those good old-fashioned trusting feelings: feed people the same food as a snack or otherwise.
• At least at work, letting people know that they’re valued, builds trust. You can communicate that people are valued by making sure they can work in a space that truly supports what they do (no distractions, no inconveniences, no accommodating, please!), by using materials of appropriate grade, by providing people with opportunities to refresh mentally when they need to . . . in short by treating them like responsible adults whose contributions you recognize and respect.
• And a design bonus—when people feel more connected to other people they believe that the space they’re in is more attractive.