ABSTRACT
The psychological epistemic lenses adopted here highlight the unconscious processes that underlie social exchanges when the participants trust each other, accept the risk inherent of the cooperative situation with a degree of confidence. Social psychologists have shown how people are inclined to judge in-group members to be more helpful than out-group members and participants choose preferentially in-group members as cooperators in economic games. The secretion of oxytocin plays an important role therefore in establishing a psychological state where the absence of anxiety in the presence of another person will facilitate collaboration. The normative dimension of philosophy then becomes essential, specifying when it is justified to trust or to be skeptical, enabling us to consciously revise impressions that are too readily available. Philosophy is traditionally invested in normative issues and, in the case of trust, the goal is to find some formal criteria to determine when it is justified to trust someone.
