Trust for me is knowing that someone "has my back" -- but I really couldn't understand what it was to trust someone until I learned how to trust myself.

Trust is a slippery concept.

I have ironclad trust in various people for certain things, but not 100% trust for all comers in all things.

Sometimes I think we have excessive expectations of people closest to us and who we tend to expect the most from. This creates an unvirtuous cycle where we are always disappointed. Because at bottom many of us seem to want something that doesn't exist: at least one person who never misunderstands us or finds us lacking or fails us. Heck, I can't even say that about myself in any absolute sense. I've occasionally failed me or failed to fully understand myself as well as I think I do.

It's hard to let go of that, though, because we want to create a "safe space" emotionally where we know everything is always (or at least nearly always) "okay". And I've never met anyone who truly feels they have this. I know I don't.

In fact religion exploits this vulnerability by promising things about the deity. For example, once you're "in" the faith god will never leave or forsake you, though all others might. Conveniently forgetting to mention that if someone ever hands you or yours, say, a fatal cancer diagnosis, then it's just god's "mysterious ways" or a "test" or it's your fault somehow. The very power this idea has as a value proposition tells me that most people feel a lack in this area, and can't find anyone to fully trust to that level of confidence.

Best I can figure, this perceived need is just a remnant of childhood, a desire to return to the oceanic environment of the womb or something along those lines ...

It's a great feeling to be able to trust someone implicitly..to be free to take it for granted..the fear that they will break that trust and let you down is just something you have to live with..but it's worth it.
Or you can go through your whole life not trusting anyone..and never risk being hurt or disappointed.
When the former fails the latter seems to become the default.

It's fragile because it can sometimes come with massive emotions for the party who's trust has been broken and those emotions can last a long time. Humans are designed to avoid continuous pain, therefore will avoid more readily people who have damaged their trust.

Trusting people is subjective. I'm not a very trusting person anymore, but that doesn't mean people aren't trustworthy. It simply means the people I've come into contact with have betrayed my trust. It doesn't even mean they meant to or agree with me that they did.

If we don't trust people our ability to interact with other humans wanes. As social creatures we require that interaction to thrive and feel personal satisfaction and growth.

If we cannot trust anyone, we cannot allow ourselves to make ourselves vulnerable by revealing our true selves -- warts and all. If we cannot make ourselves vulnerable, we can never form human relationships with any substance and depth.

Not getting arrested is one difference

Familiarity; reliability; insight; reciprocity. If you can find those in a person you might have found someone you can trust.

But many people are basically unreliable, and change what they do when the stakes go up. You might trust someone with a twenty to go grocery shopping for you, but would you trust them with a million in cash?

There are different levels of trust, if you live in an environment where you can't extend a basic level of trust to those around you it can be corrosive.

Trust is predicting the future. So we know we're safe.

Trust is knowing we have an ally.

Trust is knowing we're not alone.

I'm rather suspicious of your post heheheh. On a serious note, I wonder if sometimes I give too easily. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt unless there's something fishy about them. Of course once violated it isn't something that can easily be regained.

Without trust there is no true intimacy. Trust is earned and it allows for someone to open themselves up and become much more vulnerable knowing (hopefully) that the person you are entrusting will protect that trust with their life. Trust is learning that someone has integrity and giving them something you know will be safe with them. No, not everyone is trustworthy.

I think trust is simply an extension of wanting to know the outcome of a situation before it occurs. It's an expectation. We all get it wrong now and again and feel hurt by it.

1. Human type is elusive under necessary and inescapable time constraints, so we humans may get screwed in a relationship (in the bad way).

2. Nope. Most people cannot be trusted because they're emotional and too external in their view about their feelings.

3. If we don't trust anyone, we withold that compliment towards them, and it can be a distancing factor. However, people who are social material are rare enough so that distancing factors are not an issue.

I think that trust requires a level of security & knowledge that another, others, or even yourself can take risks. Be the risk confiding in something personal to another, being vulnerable with others, or even yourself. Risk of a negative or positive outcome for something personal.. I think that is what envelops a majority of what trust is.