Trust is crucial to many different parts of our lives. It impacts our personal relationships, the workplace, the political realm, and even our everyday interactions on the street. Today on Eight Forty-Eight, we ask the question: What makes us trust someone?

As Wisconsinites head to the polls to cast their votes for local government and the presidential primary, we talk with political consultant and cofounder of Compass Media Group Julie Cutler for insight on what makes political candidates seem trustworthy to voters. Then, we turn to University of Chicago professor Dario Maestripieri for a broader look at the science behind trust. Maestripieri has a new book out titled Games Primates Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships.

“We may think we have outgrown the conditions that govern the lives of other primates,” Maestripieri writes. “Yet technology and clothes cannot disguise the inheritance of our primate past. They have simply changed the arena in which we act out age-old rituals, making the games that human primates play more arbitrary perhaps,  but no less powerful.”

Do you agree? Call in to share with us how you learn to trust someone at 312.923.9239.