‘s newsletter. You can . “Don’t talk to strangers,” parents tell their kids. “Don’t take candy from strangers.” Many of us are taught at an early age to fear strangers. You know: stranger danger. But living in society means having to trust random strangers every single day. You trust strangers when you eat a cheeseburger at a restaurant. You trust strangers when you put your money in the bank, or buy something online. You trust strangers to not swerve and kill you every time you drive on the highway. A new book by Benjamin Ho, Why Trust Matters: An Economist’s Guide to the Ties That Bind Us, argues the story of the economy — and all of human civilization, really — is the story of how we’ve evolved to trust larger and larger groups of strangers.