Bridging the Trust Deficit: U.S. Financial Institutions, Consumer Risk, and the Hormone of Love

In order to galvanize consumer trust and diminish the fear associated with risk, large U.S. banks have routinely exploited the connection between their massive size and the good feeling people get when they stand to make a profit. Therefore, most big bank customers whose trust ought to have been shaken beyond recovery after the 2008 crash have remained convinced that when it comes to banking, bigger is better. Yet smaller local institutions have rarely had a better opportunity to turn the bigger is better principle upside down. What has shaped up is a classic contest of brains vs. hormones.