Windows of (Dis) Trust: A Situated Psychological Perspective on Understanding the Phenomenon of Trust

Based on the Danish philosopher Knud Ejlar Løgstrup's understanding of trust as a spontaneous and sovereign expression of life, we argue that trust is a radically relational phenomenon that manifests itself in a situated manner between people. Distrust arises when our trust is betrayed, either because the other does not live up to our expectations or in some other way raises suspicion that trust may potentially be betrayed. Distrust is thus the negation of trust and requires justification. We argue that trust and distrust are fundamentally different phenomena yet dialectically intertwined. We further argue that both can only be understood relationally and situationally, and thus not as something we carry with us as stable or uniform structures. We analyze examples from the relationship between parents and daycare-professionals, with a particular focus on the windows of daycare centers. Through this, we argue that it is necessary to incorporate a social practice theoretical framework to capture the conditions we have for safeguarding trust and understanding the reasons of why distrust arises. We conclude that Løgstrup's phenomenological understanding and social practice theory are not immediately commensurable, but both are necessary to develop a comprehensive situated psychological understanding of the phenomenon of trust.