Assume positive intent
I love Linus Torvalds quote on trust (paraphrase, not exact citation):<p>&quot;People can trust me because they don&#x27;t have to.&quot;<p>He was talking in the context of Linux kernel, but I think this applies universally. If you are in a relationship where the other side has more power, you cannot trust them. However, if you have equal (or greater) power, and you can walk away, you can trust them.<p>And again, people intuitively know this, I think, so if you want somebody to trust you, then you should give them enough power over yourself, expose yourself a bit.