Top Highlights

• We think we can easily see into the hearts of others based on the flimsiest of clues. We jump at the chance to judge strangers.
• We have a default to truth: our operating assumption is that the people we are dealing with are honest.
• You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them. Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don’t have enough doubts about them.
• That’s the consequence of not defaulting to truth. If you don’t begin in a state of trust, you can’t have meaningful social encounters.
• Transparency is the idea that people’s behavior and demeanor—the way they represent themselves on the outside—provides an authentic and reliable window into the way they feel on the inside.