I'm Krista Tippett, today the science of trust, economics and virtue.

My guest, Paul Zach, is a leader in the emerging field of neuro-economics.

He helps explain how circumstances can dampen the human inclination towards moral behavior.

But he also studies how human and economic interactions are driven by trust and says that

can be measured and nourished biochemically.

� it's our human creations and they reflect our own human nature and in the kind of decentralized

economies we live in, it is based on trust and faith and belief and that's a good thing.

I think it recognizes human dignity, it recognizes that most human beings in most situations

are moral creatures and we can trust people to reciprocate most of the time and most

of our societies are built around that, civilizations are built around that, certainly democracy

is built around that.

This is speaking of faith, stay with us.

This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its campaign

for love and forgiveness online at loveandforgive.org.

I'm Krista Tippett.

In a few breathtaking months we've culturally moved from seeing Wall Street as an icon

of thriving civil society to analogizing its workings with book titles like House of

Cards and Animal Spirits.

This hour as part of our ongoing series repossessing virtue, we'll look at what science is

learning about trust, fair play and empathy and what these qualities have to do with human

character and economics.

My guest, Paul Zach, is a pioneer in the emerging field of neuro-economics.

...