Does age affect trust?

[DDunstock]

I feel that age definitely effects trust. I think of it in this way, though: as you get older, you trust less because you've been burned more. Whereas, in my own experience, naivety and youth go hand-in-hand.

[Judy-Ann]

I don't know but I guess its a yes everyone has its own understanding level

[jonaya]

Age does not affect trust.One can be may be 30 years but still behaving as a teenager and vice versa.it all depends on how you interact with others and if at all they know the way you behave and that is what can affect trust

[Brian6]

I find young people are more trust worthy than adult because od their innocence

[Iammisterjones]

I think that her story would have been more believable had she been older. We tend to disbelieve the youth because of their lack of experience.

[Sally_Heart]

I think that her story would have been more believable had she been older. We tend to disbelieve the youth because of their lack of experience.

That's true.

-- 12 Oct 2017, 14:33 --

However it may be, age affects trust. Even though Sarah was wiser beyond her age, it would take time and action to prove it to people around her. I believe we all have to win the trust, in quite stereotype-driven world, especially between the age gap communities. Would Tom knew her better, I believe there would be a bigger chance to trust her. Nonetheless, actions really do speak for ourselves and teens are known to lack trust.

Well spoken Athena.

[Acwoolet]

I think that a lot of adults have a hard time trusting kids unless they know them very well. I think she was trustworthy, but it may have been beneficial for her if she had been a little bit older.

[kdstrack]

I think trust has to be earned no matter what your age. Even a child is known by his actions. The adults had difficulty believing Sarah's story because they hadn't known her for very long and already some of her snide remarks put up barriers between them. Later, she was able to establish trust by her behavior in helping recover the atalatl so Tom could fulfill his desire to bury it with Bob-Bob.

[jwalker73]

I actually interpreted the question differently. I think you lose trust as you grow up. Young children trust everyone then, as we age, our trust becomes something people must earn as we have been hurt or betrayed, or learn through life experiences that people often have ulterior motives. This is more about belief rather than trust. I also think whether you believe someone relies heavily on your own personal beliefs. If a person has their own strong spiritual beliefs then Sarah's story may not have sounded so far-fetched whereas, if you are very conservative in your thoughts, you would probably put it down to a child's imagination.

[Rosemary Okoko]

I do not think age affects trust. What matters is the character of an individual and how people perceive it. In Sarah's case, a difference in age would not change much.

[prenaramesh]

I actually interpreted the question differently. I think you lose trust as you grow up. Young children trust everyone then, as we age, our trust becomes something people must earn as we have been hurt or betrayed, or learn through life experiences that people often have ulterior motives. This is more about belief rather than trust. I also think whether you believe someone relies heavily on your own personal beliefs. If a person has their own strong spiritual beliefs then Sarah's story may not have sounded so far-fetched whereas, if you are very conservative in your thoughts, you would probably put it down to a child's imagination.

Interesting insight - We trust other people less as we grow older, whereas people begin to trust us more.

[Doaa Wael]

As a medical student, the doctors teach us not to trust what the children say as they can often make up stuff and believe their own fantasies such as lying about the number of pills they took if they mistakenly ingested pills. On the contrary, children's opinions are uncensored and often honest. So it is kind of hard to draw a clear-cut line. In sarah's case however, i think she was mature enough to be trusted, but trust is not really by age, it is by actions and reasoning that leads us to trust someone or not. If sarah was older, this would have still worked as anyone can be lively and in touch with their inner child at any age.

[Cloe101]

It definitely does, age and other factors affect whether people believe you or not.

[CataclysmicKnight]

Honestly, I think age is far less important than previous honesty. I've met some kids that are far more trustworthy than many adults, but I've also met kids who lie every 5 seconds and couldn't care less about it. Whether adult or kid, people who lie that much can't be believed about what they ate for breakfast, let alone if they were in Sarah's place.

[fatemeh133]

Age does affect trust, but it is conditional. The kind of experience Sarah retells demands more maturity than her age generally allows. It could be said it should have been more believable given the maturity and detail the story relayed, stuff a regular 12 year old can't possibly make up! Problem is the author does not given us enough insight in to Sarah or Tom's past and experiences to effectively judge how much Tom can trust or whether Sarah had encounters or experiences in her short life that would allow a deep enough understanding to make up this stuff.