The ongoing provost lectures in the Templeton Series recently featured Onora O’Neill, Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, speaking on society, relationships, and trust. She illustrated her views by sharing stories and explaining how trust plays a recurring role in everyday interactions.
She explained that trust is present everywhere; the most visible cases being among providers and politicians. She said that trust is often influenced by social norms, creating a sense of skepticism.
“To be trustworthy but not to trust is everywhere today,” O’Neill said, “there is a social enforcement of people being gullible which has led more people to becoming doubtful.”
O’Neill shared a systematic approach to determining whether or not a person is trustworthy. If a person is capable of completing his or her given task, he or she will gain the trust of the person who assigned that task.
“Trust requires judgment,” O’Neill said, for example, “I trust person A to do X.” If person A asks person B to complete a task, there are a few points that both parties must abide by to establish a trusting relationship.
First, the goals of the task must be well understood by person A and well explained to person B. Second, the task must be possible for person B to accomplish; not something unrelated to their abilities. Third, the task itself must be something that doesn’t create a conflict of interest for person B.
“There are some places meant for services, but they become places of self-service,” O’Neill said, talking about corruption in the workplace.
Should person B complete their given task, the quality of their work can only be criticized if person A independently accounts for person B’s performance. If person B successfully completes the primary task, additional tasks may be requested by person A to confirm person B’s trustworthiness.
“After this speech, I have a new understanding of trust, thanks to the Baroness O’Neill,” said Michael Santiago, a junior.
“I thought that her style of delivery was marvelous and was delivered without and hesitation which is something that one seldom sees,” said Walter Watson, professor emeritus in Philosophy.
O’Neill has written many books concerning political philosophy, ethics, and bioethics. She has studied philosophy, physiology, and psychology at Oxford University, and received her doctorate from Harvard. She currently remains a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
O’Neill is just one of the guest speakers for the Templeton Series. It is an ongoing series of lectures that began in the fall of 2006.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, a three-year grant was awarded to SBU for a project titled: “Trust: Prospects for Science and Religion.” The goal of the program is to approach the issue of trust in a systematic way. Prospects for this project include study groups, lectures, workshops and conferences.
