Should trust be given, or earned?

Well, what do you want them to do for you? Would you rather be trusted by your word or thru your actions in due time? You can't expect someone else to trust you if you don't trust them. There has to be a certain level of trust from the start, but it eventually should build into an undeniable mutual trust. Trust is not a one way street.

I don't trust people when I meet them. There is a lot of cray folks out there. But earning doesn't sound quite right either. They just have to be themselves. If they're decent human beings I'll start trusting at some point.

Trust is given. You can work and be kind and considerate to someone and they do not owe you trust. Hell, you could absolutely be a trustworthy person and they still might never put their faith in you as is their right to choose. At the same time they could trust someone else who is not to be trusted based on incredibly superficial things. For example, I could trust a cute girl very easily and she could turn out to be the person who ends up knifing me in my house and stealing from me. The other side holds true as well as I could for example end up not trusting an old guy for petty reasons who's a really decent upright dude and turns out is the kind of guy who'd help you move if you asked. Trust is a choice. And like all choices it can have a positive or negative outcome. I mostly agree with Xy in that the best route is to be who you are. If a person trusts you and you trust them then great. If not OR one or both of you have poor judgement then that is on the person. But it's always given, earned or not. Deserved or not.

I think it should be earned (At least for me). Trusts are easy to break and hard to rebuild. Even if I met someone who is being themselves, I wouldn't trust them completely until I am convinced that I can.

Normally, it's unfair to distrust a person without even getting to know them a little first. I say you should listen to your gut about someone before giving him or her a little trust when you first meet.

I give people trust as a human being that they won't do something ridiculous. For people to come any closer into my life, they have to earn that trust. Trust is hard for me to give to people.

I give my trust to anybody and it's their responsibility to not betray it. Still, if they do, they're not as much hurting me as they are hurting themselves, because they've lost the respect and trust from one of the most loyal friends they would have possibly been able to find.