If a distressed stranger knocked on your door asking to use your phone, would you oblige? How about lending them a fiver for the bus, if they assured you they’d return and pay you back? In today’s fractured world, trust seems elusive and divisions run deep. A lot of people find it hard to trust strangers, perhaps in particular those who are different to us. But why? A recent breakthrough by our international team of researchers, published in Scientific Reports, has shed light on the genetic basis of trust. We discovered that our ability to trust strangers may be more than just a social or psyc…