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Trust is the essence of collaboration: as Yuval Harari eloquently noted, we as a species would not exist if it werent for our superior ability to collaborate so effectivelyand its largely down to trust. In the days of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, decisions on trust were relatively straightforward, even when it came to appointing leaders. Indeed, our ancestors lived in small groups of closely related individuals and spent all of their time together. Furthermore, the key attributes they were interested in evaluating or judging were easy to observe: courage, practical knowledge, hunting and fishing dexterity, and physical strength. There was no need then for psychometric assessments, AI, or scientific tools to assess either leadership potential or integrity, and mistakes were extremely costly because if they picked the wrong leader the whole group would just vanish at the expense of better led rival groups. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800}} But, fast-forward to our modern times, things are uncomfortably complex and hard for everyone. At work we must infer whether we can trust our colleagues, coworkers, and bosses, even when we never met them in personthey are, in physical terms, purely pixels on the screen of our Zoom calls. In politics voters are asked to pick between shrewd politicians who have mastered the art of deceit and manipulation and specialize in telling people what they want to hear, irrespective of their actual leadership capabilities. Unsurprisingly, the world is led by heads of states who enjoy dismal levels of popular approval, even when they rose to power with legitimate voter support. As I illustrate in my latest book, politicians are the ultimate example of the disconnect between our perceptions of leaders authenticity, and their actual honesty or genuineness. And yet, there is still reason to be hopeful and no reason to give up. Fortunately, science provides serious lessons for improving our ability to trust the right person and minimize the risk that we end up trusting the wrong person. In fact, the science of trust includes hundreds of robust studies decoding the predictors or determinants of individual differences in trust, as well as practical learnings on how to infer them in the most objective, reliable, and risk-free way. Here are five key lessons to consider: 1) Despite the complexity of trust inferences, people make trust evaluations and decisions in a fraction of a second: As Amos Trervsky and Daniel Kahneman put it, humans may be capable of thinking slow or rationally, yet most of the time we think fast, which is a euphemism for not thinking at all. Indeed, not only do we make rapid, careless, and furiously fast inferences of other peoples character traits, we are also overconfident about the accuracy of our inferences, and stubbornly wedded to them to the point that no amount of evidence will change our mind. This may be the best explanation for why no amount of facts or evidence may change voters preferences even after its blatantly obvious that they chose poorly (not least because they themselves are disadvantaged by their own choices). The solution? Well, we must learn to distrust our instincts and refrain from following our gut feeling. It is only through gathering reliable and predictive data, and following the facts, that we can hope to focus on substance rather than style. This is particularly important when we are assessing potential candidates for leadership roles, whether its the president of a country or a senior leader in a firm. 2) Leaders who are just being themselves ought not to be trusted: As I illustrate in my latest book, there is a paradoxical relationship between how authentic we feel and how authentic other people think we are. In particular, behaving without any pressures to conform and displaying your uninhibited and uncensored thoughts and feelings to others will feel authentic to you while polarizing, alienating, and annoying others (it is, alas, what powerful and entitled leaders do when they stop caring about how others see them). In contrast, the leaders who are seen as not just trustworthy, but also competent by others, know how to manage their reputation, engage in strategic impression management, and go to great lengths to show only the best version of themselvesthat is, the elements of their character and identity that align with the situational demands. In other words, they know where the right to be themselves ends and their obligation to others begins. This is why empathy, self-control, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and EQ are far better predictors of leadership integrity and performance than self-perceived authenticity is. 3) Charisma is a dangerous signal. Although charisma is a clear enabler of effective leadership, not least because it helps people to emerge as leaders, it can also help leaders to mask their incompetence or unethical motives. In that sense, you can think of charisma as an amplifier: when leaders are honest and competent, it will help them in their quest to turn a group of people into a high-performing team; but when they are dishonest or incompetent (or even worse, both), their charisma will turn them into pretty harmful, destructive, and toxic creatures. Since charisma is often conflated with trustworthinesswe like and admire people who seem charismatic and therefore gravitate towards them, including when it comes to trusting themit would be usefl to resist the allure of charisma when we infer integrity or competence in leaders. Quiet, low key, serious, and intelligent people make excellent leaders even if they dont seem entertaining. Charismatic, charming, entertaining, and attention-seeking leaders may use their social skills to manipulate, influence, and seduce, especially when they have psychopathic, narcissistic, or Machiavellian tendencies. 4) Our ability to trust is significantly reduced under stress, anxiety, or pressure. This is obviously a huge problem, since in these instances it is usually imperative to trust the right person. In other words, the more we need to trust people, the more vulnerable we are to trusting the wrong person. The lesson here is obvious: dont make trust-related decisions when your emotions are clouding your judgment; first relax, breathe, look for the right moment and the right mental zone, then try to think rationally. 5) Some people are naturally more trusting than others: this depends not just on their personality, but also the culture in which they grew up. Paradoxically, prosocial and healthy cultures are more likely to engender trust, since free riders and imposters are less likely to emergebut this also makes those cultures more vulnerable and susceptible to such toxic agents. In contrast, corrupt, antisocial, and failed cultures will have low levels of trust, since everybody is rightly paranoid of being cheated or deceived by others. However, this will make it impossible to cooperate and collaborate in such cultures, which further contributes to their downfall. At the individual level, it is helpful to understand whether your bias is too much trust or too much skepticism, so you can always recalibrate or adjust your impressions towards a more objective center point. In the end, trust remains the ultimate leadership currency: hard to earn, easy to lose, and impossible to fake for long. Titles, charisma, or confidence may help leaders gain followers, but only integrity, a reputational accolade that must be gained through long-term actions rather than short-term impressions, keeps them there (unless they decide to keep themselves there through excessive force, power, or unlawful means). In an age where image routinely outpaces substance, the most trustworthy leaders will be those who act as if someone were always watching; not because they fear being caught, but because they dont need to hide. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. 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E-Commerce
U.S. President Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and is expected to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday. Negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said. The news sent Asian stocks soaring to record peaks. “I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One before landing in the Japanese capital Tokyo. TRUMP MEETS JAPANESE EMPEROR Wearing a gold tie and blue suit, Trump shook hands with officials on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps, before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo. His motorcade was later seen entering the Imperial Palace grounds, where he met Japanese Emperor Naruhito. Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs. Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase U.S. pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters. Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday. Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.” Thousands of police are guarding Tokyo. A knife-wielding man was arrested on Friday outside the U.S. embassy and an anti-Trump protest is planned in downtown Shinjuku. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Japanese counterpart Ryosei Akazawa, architects of the tariff deal agreed in July, are set to hold a working lunch on Monday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, travelling with Trump alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is also expected to meet his new counterpart, Satsuki Katayama, for the first time. IMPERIAL WELCOME FOR TRUMP’S RETURN Trump was the first foreign leader to meet Naruhito after he came to the throne in 2019, continuing an imperial line that some say is the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy. Naruhito’s role, however, is purely symbolic, and the key diplomacy will take place with Takaichi on Tuesday. Trump and Takaichi are set to meet at the nearby Akasaka Palace, where he met Abe six years ago, and will be welcomed by a military honour guard. Among the investment pledges, the two countries will sign a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday on investment in shipbuilding, a source with knowledge of the plans said. Takaichi is also expected to reassure Trump that Tokyo is willing to do more on security after telling lawmakers on Friday she plans to accelerate Japan’s biggest defence build-up since World War Two. Japan hosts the largest concentration of U.S. military power abroad. Trump has said previously Tokyo is not spending enough to defend its islands from an increasingly assertive China. While Takaichi has said she will speed plans to boost defence spending to 2% of GDP, she may struggle to commit Japan to any further increases that Trump seeks, as her ruling coalition does not have a majority in parliament. Trump is due to leave on Wednesday for Gyeongju in South Korea, where he will hold talks with President Lee Jae Myung. Bessent told reporters the overall framework of a deal with South Korea was also done but would not be finalised this week. Thursday’s expected meeting with Xi will come after Washington and Beijing have raised tariffs on each other’s exports and threatened to halt trade involving critical minerals and technologies. Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore the terms of trade that existed before Trump’s return to power. Talks to prepare for the meeting have focused on managing disagreements and modest improvements, before a visit by Trump to China expected early next year. Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski, Laurie Chen, Jihoon Lee and Ju-min Park Trevor Hunnicutt, John Geddie and Tim Kelly, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1980, grew up with MTV and empty houses, earning them the name “latchkey kids.” The first generation who logged onto AOL Instant Messenger and played video games while still enjoying the freedom that came before helicopter parents took over is fascinating. But as a small generation that falls between baby boomers and millennials, they’re often overlooked. When it comes to their spending power, however, Gen X is small but mighty. According to a new report from ICSC, a trade association for retail real estate, Gen X may have more spending power than brands realize. While Gen X only makes up around 19% of the U.S. population, the demographic is responsible for 31% of online and in-person spending, the report finds. Not only do Gen Xers buy more in stores than baby boomers, millennials, and Gen Z across categories (luxury, fitness, and total retail costs), they’re also driving spending on dining out. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Per the report, Gen X is responsible for nearly one-third of all restaurant spending. Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, said in a press release that Gen X is “the powerhouse driving todays retail economy, spending more per shopper than all other generations.” Outsized spending impact in five states According to the report, Gen Xers are such powerful spenders that their mere presence in locations across the United States actually has a major impact on the market in that area. More than one-third of the generation’s population lives in just five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, and their spending is impactful. It’s especially evident in Florida cities like Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, as well as Houston, Texas, and more. We know that younger shoppers tend to be deeply loyal to the brands they love. But Gen X is exceptionally set in their ways, too. No big surprise. I mean, have you ever met a Gen Xer? You can’t convince them to love something they hate and vice-versa. That’s likely why 81% of latchkey kids say they are loyal to the brands they trustand they probably always will be. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); “Gen X is pragmatic, loyal to brands they trust, and influential decision-makers for themselves, their children, and their parents, McGee says. For retailers, there is no bigger near-term growth opportunity than winning the loyalty and the dollars of Gen X. Gen X isn’t just spending more than other generations. They’re also plugged in online, as they are massively tech-savvy, using online tools like social media regularly. According to the report, 92% of the generation is on social media daily. Still, brands aren’t marketing to them. Only 5% of brand influencing spending targets Gen X, which experts say is a huge mistake. “Theyve got wealth . . . They may be looking to start to make that semi-retirement-type transition,” Ryan Marshall, president and CEO of PulteGroup, a homebuilder, says in the report, “but they still consider themselves to be very young and active.” Those factors definitely seem to promote spending. But soon, that may be especially true of Gen X, as a major transfer of wealth is about to take place. Around one in three Gen Xers expect to receive an inheritance, which could come out to around $308 billion annually in spending. While Gen X’s lingo may be lowkey dated, their currency still works. Brands may be focused on appealing to on-trend millennials and Gen Zers, but they’d be wise not to write off the MTV kids just yet.
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. According to ResiClubs analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s new annual data, 40.3% of U.S. owner-occupied housing units are now mortgage-free, marking a new high for this data series. Thats up from 39.8% in 2023. The portion of homeowners with no mortgage has ticked up almost every year since 2010when it was 32.8%. A key factor driving the rise in mortgage-free homeownership is demographics. Older homeowners are more likely to be mortgage-free, and as Americans live longer and the massive baby boomer generation ages into their senior years, the U.S. population has skewed olderpushing up the share of homeowners without mortgages. According to ResiClubs analysis, 54% of the 35 million U.S. homeowners who are mortgage-free are 65 years old or older. People aged 65 and older make up more than a third (34.1%) of current U.S. homeowners. Among those 65 and older, 64% own their primary homes free and clear. Across the country, mortgage-free status varies A LOT. Regions with lower home values and areas with a higher proportion of older populations tend to have a slightly higher percentage of homeowners without mortgages. Among the 200 largest U.S. metros by population, these 5 have the HIGHEST percentage of mortgage-free homeowners: 61.8% > McAllen, TX 57.8% > Brownsville, TX 57.1% > Beaumont, TX 56.2% > Kingsport, TN 55.8% > Longview, TX Among the 200 largest U.S. metros by population, these 5 have the LOWEST percentage of mortgage-free homeowners: 26.4% > Washington, DC 27.0% > Provo, UT 27.1% > Denver, CO 27.2% > Greeley, CO 28.8% > Ogden, UT Click here to view an interactive version of the map below Mortgage-free homeownership has reached a new high. Demographicsparticularly the aging of baby boomersis a key force behind this trend. In the years ahead, ResiClub expects more equity products (such as reverse mortgages) to emerge and expand, as some older mortgage-free homeowners look to tap into the equity theyve built without selling their homes.
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E-Commerce
I have never had any interest in getting a hardware wallet like the new Ledger Nano Gen 5. But talking with Susan Karethe designer of the original Apple Macintosh icons and an endless torrent wonderful pixel artmade me realize I need one. “The idea that an individual can really control their own assets without a government or anything political coming between you and your assets. I like that,” she tells me. The Ledger Nano is a 0.3-inch-thick credit card-sized block that keeps your digital assets secure by storing them offline. It has a frontal e-ink display that displays a grid of pixel art icons that look very much like the original Mac. For the Nano Gent 5, Kare worked with the French company to design a set of nine pixel-art icons that are laser-engraved onto small aluminum tags. These tags physically snap into a dedicated slot on the Nano Gen 5, allowing owners to customize their device with a satisfying click. Kare got involved thanks to Tony Fadell”the Father of the Apple iPod” and board member of Ledgerwho called her to see if she’d like to work on the project. It was a call between old friends; the two had worked together at General Magic, the secretive Silicon Valley startup founded in 1990 by Apple veterans Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat that tried to build the first smartphone decades too early. Fadell knows her taste, Kare says, and pitched the project as a high-concept design challenge she would enjoy, similar to the work she did for Asprey Studio. He kept the details intentionally mysterious, not even mentioning Ledger by name at first. The only hook was the promise of a fun, creative puzzle. For Kare, that was more than enough. Of course, I wrote back immediately, like, tell me more, she recalls. A meeting in San Francisco with Ariel Wengroff, Ledgers EVP of Communications and Marketing, sealed the deal, and soon Kare was back at her digital drawing board. Ledger Nano Gen 5 [Photo: Ledger] Power and fun Kares collaboration comes as Ledger reinvents its flagship product. The new Ledger Nano Gen 5 is a significant evolution of the device used by eight million people in 165 countries. More than 20% of the world’s crypto assets are secured by its hardware wallets, the company tells me. Physically, Ledge Nano Gen 5 is larger and more refined, with a 2.76-inch E Ink touchscreen that now dominates its face. The new energy-efficient display enables advanced security features like clear signing, which gives you an unambiguous on-screen verification of any transaction or approval, and a Transaction Check function, a security feature that simulates a transaction to identify potential threats before you give final approval. The device, now officially called a signer to reflect its expanded role beyond just financial transactions, is built to be your key to a broader digital life. With Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC capabilities, its designed for on-the-go use, allowing you to securely manage your assets or verify your identity from anywhere. It connects to the revamped Ledger Wallet app, which acts as a secure control center for buying, swapping, and earning assets, and can now connect directly to popular decentralized apps, like 1inch, a service that searches across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges to find the best possible price for a token swap. The company claims that its devices have never been hacked, but every Nano Gen 5 includes a Ledger Recovery Key as a physical backup, just in case. While the technology is serious, the company claims it wanted to inject a dose of personality into the experience. Thats where Kare came in. Wengroff tells me that as our digital and physical lives blur, the team wanted to offer a form of personal expression. The idea was to create a series of collectible badges that would physically snap into the new Nanos chassis. We really thought, actually, the perfect person would be Susan Kare, Wengroff says. She believes that Kares has a legendary ability to create an emotional connection for new technology using her pixel art. The badges themselves are small, laser-engraved aluminum tags, each featuring a new pixel-art icon from Kare, manufactured in Ledgers own facility in Vierzon, France. They click into place with a satisfying snap, a small sensory experience. For Kare, the project was a perfect fit. I usually jokingly say, you know, give me 16 by 16 and a concept and I will make it happen, she says. The first step was deciding on the actual grid resolution. To ensure the designs were bold and clear on the small tags, she and the Ledger team opted for fewer, but larger, pixels, with each icon fitting within roughly an 18 by 20 pixel grid. Rather than being handed a specific list, the company just told Kare to do her thing. Any other thing would have been like asking David Bowie to write something retro like Life on Mars for you. She ultimately developed around 30 concepts for the team to choose from. Her goal was to create an assortment that felt fresh and spirited, steering clear of anything that felt like a standard emoji. Through weekly Zoom calls with Ledgers creative director, they whittled the collection down to the final nine, which include a mischievous cherry, a magic 8-ball, a horseshoe, and a chihuahua the team has fittingly named Nano. [Image: Ledger] But the bestand apparently everyones favoriteis the crowned frog. Wengroff believed it was a frog princess bt Kare was thinking about the frog prince. Its funny because I thought it was a frog prince, Kare says, referencing the fairy tale and the dating adage about having to kiss a lot of frogs. But, she adds, it can totally be either. And I realized that thats good. Wengroff notes that everyone in the office has interpreted the icons differently and picked their own favorites, proving the designs power to evoke a personal response. In fact, everyone in Wengroff’s team was so focused on the badges that she says she constantly had to remind everyone that the launch was for a new device, not for the badges. Which I guess is exactly the whole point of this article and also the device itself. For Kare, this is the joy of her work. While the device itself is the point, it is that little dab of something with a little feel of art or personality, as Kare describes it, what makes it (clickity clack) click. Its the same philosophy that has made her work timeless. And what makes the new Ledger Nano not just a powerful tool for securing your digital life, but a small canvas for expressing it.
Category:
E-Commerce
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