The Seven Rules of Trust
We are living through a crisis of trust. In the United States, the number of people who trust the federal government has plummeted from half the population in 2001 to a mere 16 percent in 2023. Trust in the news media has followed a similar downward spiral. This isn’t just a headline; it’s a deeply felt problem that shapes our politics, our communities, and our daily interactions. In a world where our foundational institutions are losing credibility, where do we look for a blueprint to rebuild?
Surprisingly, one of the most powerful models comes from what once seemed like a terrible idea: an online encyclopedia that could be written and edited by anyone. When Wikipedia launched, it was widely seen as a joke, destined to become a wasteland of misinformation. Comedian Stephen Colbert famously satirized it with the concept of “Wikiality,” where truth is whatever enough users agree on. The early skepticism was understandable.
And yet, against all odds, Wikipedia not only survived—it became one of the most trusted sources of information on the planet. In his book, “The Seven Rules of Trust,” founder Jimmy Wales distills the principles that made this possible. This article breaks down five of the most surprising and impactful lessons from his work, offering a practical guide for building things that last in an age of disbelief.
1. Trust Is Personal, Even at a Global Scale
The first rule of trust, Wales explains, is to “Make It Personal.” It’s a deceptively simple idea. For vast, faceless organizations like Wikipedia or Uber, it seems logical to think about trust in abstract, systemic terms. But the reality is that trust is always won or lost on a human-to-human level.
The Three Pillars: Authenticity, Empathy, and Logic
To understand this, Wales points to a framework developed by Harvard professor Frances Frei. She argues that trust is a triangle built on three core pillars:
- Authenticity: Do you believe the person is honest and has integrity? Are their thoughts, words, and actions aligned?
- Empathy: Do you believe this person genuinely cares about your well-being and success? Do they listen?
- Logic: Do you believe this person is competent and has the ability to deliver on their promises?
Wales illustrates this with the harrowing story of his newborn daughter, Kira, who was born seriously ill. He and his wife had to decide whether to approve an experimental, high-risk treatment. They said yes, placing their trust in Dr. Bernstein, a man they had just met. Unconsciously, they evaluated him on these three pillars: he was authentic in explaining the risks, empathetic to their fear, and his logic—his credentials and expertise—was undeniable.
But this personal crisis was more than just an example; it was the intellectual and emotional origin story of Wikipedia itself. In the terrifying hours after Kira’s birth, Wales desperately scoured the internet for reliable information on her condition. What he found was a wasteland of scattered anecdotes from strangers and incomprehensible scientific papers. There was nothing in between. The experience inflamed him. As he writes in his book, “The Internet couldn’t just be writing by random people whose reliability is unknowable, alongside scientific papers beyond the comprehension of laypeople. There had to be a reliable online encyclopedia that anyone could read and understand. After I drove home with Kira, I tore up Nupedia and launched Wikipedia.”
This personal framework isn’t just for individuals. When Uber’s reputation cratered after years of scandals, the company brought in Frances Frei to help. She found that Uber had “broken trust with every single one of their stakeholders.” Her solution was to apply the personal trust framework at a corporate level, training thousands of managers to understand that putting away your phone in a meeting isn’t just polite—it’s a demonstration of empathy that builds trust. By scaling these human principles, Uber transformed its culture and began to restore its reputation.
Trust, whether personal or corporate, is an emotional judgment of reliability rooted in human-scale assessments of character. The failure to honor this—by hiding behind corporate process or abstract systems—is where institutions most often fail.
2. The Most Powerful Way to Earn Trust Is to Give It Away First
In a world rife with cynicism, extending trust first can feel naive. But according to Wales’s Rule #4, “Give to Get,” it is the single most powerful strategy for building cooperation. The most effective way to earn trust is to take the first step and give it freely.
The Quaker Playbook: How Honesty Became a Business Model
This principle is centuries old. Wales recounts the story of Quaker businesspeople in the 17th century. Bound by a faith that demanded absolute truthfulness, they adopted a radical business policy: they set fixed, fair prices and refused to haggle. In a world where haggling and misrepresentation were standard practice, this was commercial suicide. And at first, they struggled.
“Many Friends, being tradesmen of several sorts lost their custom at the first; for the people would not trade with them nor trust them… In time, however, people’s suspicions of the Quakers’ honesty subsided. They came to realize that Quakers treated everyone fairly. And that changed everything.”
By extending trust to their customers—trusting they wouldn’t be taken advantage of—they became famously trustworthy themselves. Their reputation for honesty became their most valuable asset, and Quaker-founded companies like Barclays and Cadbury became titans of industry.
This same principle is at the heart of Wikipedia’s collaborative model. The community’s core policy is to “Assume good faith.” In practice, this means that when an editor disagrees with a change, they don’t attack the other person’s motives. Instead, they address the substance of the contribution respectfully, assuming the other person is also trying to build a better encyclopedia. This approach short-circuits the toxic feedback loops common on social media and fosters an environment of mutual respect.
From 17th-century merchants to a 21st-century digital encyclopedia, the lesson holds true. Extending trust first is not a weakness; it is a profound and practical strategy for building a cooperative world.
3. A ‘Boring’ Purpose Can Be More Powerful Than a Grand Vision
Every modern organization is told to have a bold, inspiring vision. Jimmy Wales had one for Wikipedia: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” It’s a powerful statement, but it isn’t what actually built the encyclopedia. The real work was guided by Rule #3, which centers on a much simpler, almost boring, statement of purpose.
The Power of “It’s an Encyclopedia”
The phrase that truly built Wikipedia was one Wales repeated constantly: “Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.” This simple declaration was incredibly powerful because it tapped into a pre-existing “mental model” that nearly everyone on Earth already understood.
Because everyone knew what an encyclopedia was, it was easy to recruit volunteers and guide their work without a complex rulebook. People instinctively knew that an article on the Eiffel Tower belonged, but an article about their neighbor who worked in construction probably didn’t. They knew the tone should be neutral and factual—”just the facts, ma’am”—not poetic or opinionated. This shared understanding provided a clear, strong purpose from day one. As one academic quoted by Wales notes:
“If you say that the goal is to create ‘a thing that has existed previously, and that people are familiar with, it just makes a lot of things easier.’”
This simple, shared purpose made it possible for countless strangers to collaborate effectively. It became the first of Wikipedia’s “five pillars” and the ultimate standard for resolving disputes. An editor wasn’t there to promote a political view or a company; they were “here to build an encyclopedia.” This clarity of purpose fostered a culture obsessed with accuracy and verifiability, attracting volunteers who shared those values.
It’s a powerful reminder that while a grand vision can inspire, a clear, simple, and shared purpose is often the more effective tool for building trust and getting things done.
4. Civility Isn’t Weakness—It’s a Tool for Smarter Outcomes
Most online discourse is a toxic brew of outrage, personal attacks, and bad faith. It’s tempting to believe this is the price of “radical candor” or that unfiltered debate is the only way to get to the truth. But Rule #5, “Your Mother Was Right,” argues that civility is not mere politeness; it’s an essential tool for achieving more intelligent and robust outcomes.
How ‘Change My View’ Makes the Internet a Better Place
For proof, look no further than the Reddit community r/ChangeMyView. With nearly four million subscribers, this forum allows anonymous strangers to have productive debates on the most explosive topics imaginable, from abortion to addiction. The secret is a set of strict rules that enforce civility. Users must attack the argument, not the person. They cannot accuse others of acting in bad faith. The result is a space where people can honestly challenge each other’s beliefs without the conversation devolving into a flame war.
The psychological mechanism behind this is profound. Author Ian Leslie explains that in any conversation, there are “two channels of communication going on.” The first is the “content conversation”—the substance of the debate. But beneath that runs a “subterranean channel” that is all about the relationship, asking, “Am I getting the respect that I want and deserve from you?” If that second channel is disrupted by insults or bad faith, the content conversation becomes impossible. Civility ensures the relationship channel remains stable, creating the psychological safety required for the real work to get done.
Wikipedia is built on this foundation. Civility is one of its “five pillars,” and an academic study found that when “politically polarized teams” of editors came together, they actually “create articles of higher quality.” Civility didn’t erase their disagreements; it created a safe environment where they could challenge each other’s assumptions and synthesize their different perspectives into a more comprehensive and neutral final product.
This stands in stark contrast to the philosophy of figures like Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, who famously defended his abusive language as unfiltered honesty. The success of Wikipedia proves that civility is not weakness. It is the essential ingredient that allows diverse viewpoints to be shared safely, leading to smarter, more resilient results.
5. Radical Transparency Builds Trust, Especially When You’re Flawed
The final lesson is perhaps the most counter-intuitive of all. Rule #7, “Clear as Glass,” posits that the fastest way to build credibility isn’t to project an image of perfection, but to be radically transparent about your flaws. Paradoxically, admitting your mistakes is one of the most powerful ways to prove you are trustworthy.
Richard Nixon’s Secret Weapon: The ‘Checkers Speech’
In 1952, Richard Nixon, then a candidate for Vice President, was nearly forced off the Republican ticket by a financial scandal. He saved his career with a televised address that became known as the “Checkers speech.” While most remember the sentimental story about his family dog, the real power of the speech came from a shockingly detailed and “unprecedented” public disclosure of his entire financial history, from his salary and savings down to the mortgage on his house.
This was a classic “statement against interest,” a legal and psychological principle holding that an admission so contrary to one’s own self-interest is powerfully credible. By revealing intensely private and potentially embarrassing information, Nixon performed a costly signal of honesty. It was a humiliating act of transparency, and it was devastatingly effective.
Wikipedia applies this same principle by publicly flagging its own shortcomings. At the top of many articles, you’ll find large editorial banners with warnings like “This article’s factual accuracy is disputed” or “The political neutrality of this article is disputed.”
While these banners expose the project’s flaws for all to see, they also build profound trust with the reader. They signal that Wikipedia is not trying to hide its imperfections. Instead, it is openly acknowledging them and inviting everyone to help fix them. This radical honesty shows that the project is committed to the truth, even when the truth is that an article isn’t good enough yet.
Organizations from Airbnb, which publicly owned its failures after a user’s home was vandalized, to Wikipedia have demonstrated a fundamental truth: hiding your mistakes erodes credibility, but owning them openly is a powerful strategy for building lasting trust.
Conclusion: A More Trusting Future Is Possible
The principles that allowed thousands of strangers to build the world’s largest encyclopedia are not unique to the internet. They are universal rules of trust. Building personal connections, giving trust to get it in return, rallying around a clear purpose, demanding civility, and embracing radical transparency—these are the tools that can mend our frayed social fabric.
The late British Member of Parliament Jo Cox, a friend of Wales, believed that “we have more in common… than things that divide us.” Wikipedia stands as a testament to that belief, a global barn-raising built on the better angels of our nature. The rules that built it are a blueprint. The only question left is: What could they help you build?
Jimmy Wales is an internet entrepreneur best known as the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. This Alabama-born, London-based entrepreneur utilized his experience building Wikipedia—an initially doubted, but now globally trusted, online encyclopedia—to co-author his book, The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last (written with Dan Gardner). His professional accomplishments and dedication to societal contribution have earned him recognition as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and a top global leader by the World Economic Forum. It seems he’s successfully leveraged the power of crowd-sourced knowledge and a hopeful view of human nature.
Book details
- Title: The Seven Rules of Trust
- Explanatory Title: : A Blueprint for Building Things That Last
- Author: Jimmy Wales
- Publisher: Crown Currency
- Publication Date: October 28, 2025
- Print Length: 240 pages
- ISBN-10: 0593727460
- ISBN-13: 978-0593727461
- Category: Business Encyclopedias / Social Aspects of Technology / Leadership & Motivation