Can you trust someone you have never met? Swift trust and self-disclosure in temporary teams

Abstract

In this thesis I ask the question “can you trust someone you have never met”. The background for this is the temporary nature of cabin crew teams which implies that it is not possible to rely on conventional trust, and to better understand how it still is possible to trust someone you have never met I have focused on factors that contribute to initial trust (or categorization) and swift trust. An important aspect is communication between team members, and especially self-disclosure. My main hypothesis is that self-disclosure serves as an accelerator in building trust swiftly, and by taking a closer look at self-disclosure and swift trust in temporary teams I have aimed to increase the understanding of the mechanisms behind the substantial degree of openness that seem to exist within cabin crew and its effect on trust development. All my informants have highlighted the swiftness of self-disclosure, i.e., that self-disclosure takes place very early in the relationship. Furthermore, I have identified reciprocation of such self-disclosure as crucial in building trust among cabin crew members, and that self-disclosure seem to accelerate swift trust.