Political Distrust

Jul 08, 2011 Editorial

While there has been much talk over the past half century about the need for our political parties to work together for the common good, unfortunately that rhetoric has not been translated into lasting action. In the last decade or so, the rhetoric has become more intense, with structured proposals to institutionalise the cooperation in the face of our palpable inability to initiate sustainable development in our country. The cause, some have claimed, is the inability to develop trust among our political elites. The premise, which few would dispute, is that distrust is the default setting in our political system.
Distrust is the confident expectation that another individual’s motives, intentions, and behaviours are sinister and harmful to one’s own interests. In interdependent relationships, which all political relationships are, this often entails a sense of fear and anticipation of discomfort or danger. Distrust naturally prompts us to take steps that reduce our vulnerability in an attempt to protect our interests. Accordingly, our distrust of others is likely to evoke a competitive (as opposed to cooperative) orientation that stimulates and exacerbates conflict. Distrust has also been linked to lower job satisfaction, commitment, and motivation. There’s is a lot of distrust circulating in Guyana.
Distrust may arise due to differences in group membership: individuals identify and are positively attached to their in-groups, yet assign negative stereotypes to out-group members and may view them with suspicion and hostility. Hence our ethnic wariness. Distrust can also arise directly as the result of personal experiences among individuals, such as when one person breaks a promise to another. Distrust is likely to increase with the magnitude of the violation, the number of past violations, and the perception that the offender intended to commit the violation
Once in place, distrust forms a powerful frame on subsequent events in the relationship, such that even good-faith efforts by the offender to restore the relationship are met with scepticism and suspicion. The result is a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” where every move the other person makes is interpreted as additional evidence that justifies an initial decision to distrust him/her. This distrust not only inhibits cooperation in the relationship, but also may result in retaliation that causes the conflict to escalate. When the other person reciprocates this sentiment, there is mutual distrust that further fuels the escalation of conflict.
Although distrust has generally been regarded as patently harmful, it should be acknowledged that there are potentially valuable benefits of some distrust. We are sure that all parties had experiences where they misjudged another as credible and trustworthy, only to be exploited. Hence, distrust can be a valuable mechanism that prevents us from falling prey to a naive view of other people that allows us to be blind to clues of their untrustworthiness (and thus making us willing co-conspirators to our own exploitation).
A certain level of distrust is vital to preventing excessive group cohesion that precludes sound decision-making. In addition, a certain amount of distrust allows us to set boundaries around another’s behaviour in a way that limits their freedom yet permits functional interaction. However, distrust can lead to adverse effects as well. As noted earlier, distrust is associated with a lack of cooperation, lower satisfaction and commitment, and possibly even retribution and actively hostile behaviour. Taken to its extreme, distrust can give rise to paranoid cognitions — false or exaggerated cognitions that one is subject to malevolent treatment by others. Such perceptions drive individuals to the point of hyper-vigilance (excessively trying to make sense of every action the other person takes) and rumination (brooding or stewing on the meaning of the other person’s behaviour and their intentions), resulting in a faulty diagnosis about whether the other can be trusted or not.

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Political Distrust

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