Abstract

The fundamental goal of this paper is to make a sketch of what trust looks like in Korean culture. To pursue this goal, we have resorted to materials linked to trust whose characteristics are theoretical, conceptual, observational and illustrational. Although a shortage of empirical and systematic data on trust is a big obstacle to profound understanding of trust operating in Korea, we would like to assign some significance to our attempt to conceptualize the concept of trust as it really is in the Maum(mind) of common Koreans. We believe that research paradigm for behavioral science should be cast off in research of mind-related phenomena like trust. A general practice cherished to date in doing psychological research is to pinpoint exclusively its focus on external manifestation of a given concept with no precedent analyses about it in anthropological and cultural-psychological perspectives. We would like to argue that complete understanding of naïve psychology of those phenomena should precede construction of psychological theories about them. That is, knowledge of interpretations, experiences and theories laypersons have in relation to mind-related phenomena has to be underpinnings of further theoretical elaborations about those phenomena.