#12

I've had some strange people calling the house lately. I'm so glad I have caller ID to save me from dealing directly with these people. I mean really now! Who in their right mind would name their kid "Toll Free Number"?! That's just downright cruel. The teasing that poor person had to endure as a child must've been horrendous. Despite my empathy it doesn't endear me to talking to the poor wretch. How do I know if this person is of sound mind - especially if he went through horrible childhood teasing or bullying? One never knows with people who have odd names. Can they really be trusted? I think not. I know Shakespeare says that a rose by any other name smells as sweet, but he never met "Toll Free Number" either!


Come to think of it, how does a person know if someone else is trustworthy? Certain names definitely don't lend themselves to confidence in certain contexts (See Post #10: http://comicprincess.blogspot.com/2009/04/10.html). Also, we know there is one certain common sense measure of trustworthiness or lack thereof: beady eyes-the very first sign of untrustworthiness we are taught! Beware the beady-eyed man! And of course there's the "trust your gut" tool many humans use.

To trust or not to trust? Are there other factors that do or don't instill a sense of trust? Since the Internet has all the answers, I think this princess will seek and find. Here are some results:

• Our bones will tell a story! This is an actual search option: "traits that can be gleaned from a person's skeletal remains". So good bone structure = trustworthy person? Cool! Now we have a telltale sign in addition to a good stable name.
• Look what else Google coughed up: two separate studies where people were rated on their trustworthiness http://www.ts-si.org/soc-&-psych/3398-how-does-another-persons-face-guide-us-to-fear-or-trust.html and creditworthiness http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=12299 based on facial features! There's something to the beady eye thing! Actually they look at the eyebrows and mouth more. It seems an angry face doesn't appear too trustworthy. Imagine that! And as far as the creditworthiness goes, people were able to accurately predict who'd pay back their loan based on a picture of the person. So we can throw out the credit scores now! Hopefully they don't look at this princess' passport photo for evidence!

Thankfully we don't have to do a taste test on each other to find out. We don't have to resort to the kitty cat butt sniff test either! We have the Internet, our eyes, and our gut. What more could a human ask for in this life, the Universe, and everything?