The Trust Paradox: Why Believing in Strangers Makes You Happier

One of the largest psychological studies ever conducted — a meta-analysis of nearly 1,000 studies involving more than 2.5 million participants — has revealed something counterintuitive: trusting others, even complete strangers, makes us happier. This episode explores the bidirectional relationship between trust and well-being, examines why this connection varies dramatically across the lifespan, and considers whether our increasingly skeptical modern world may be undermining our happiness. This episode was generated with AI assistance.