Ratings1
Average rating2
A lot of ground is covered in this book about relationships. A good side of the book is that the author explains most of the terms and phenomena that is referenced here, from game theory to Zeigarnik effect, and those descriptions are apt and accurate. Other than those, there are a lot of terminology introduced by the author, which are again well explained.
The book breaks down for me at two points, stretching external references beyond their descriptive power, and using anecdotes and subjective observations (or pure practice based evidence) as a basis for conclusions. Some examples of stretching referenced effects is Zeigarnik effect, which is a relatively obscure and barely scientific idea on its own which can be narrowly attributed to short time horizons (hours), but the author uses it to explain certain tension build ups in spans of months and years between couples, it just doesn't hold. And then we move to practice based evidence, which without an accompanying randomised controlled trial or such rigorous process is not scientific: adds up to just some nice anecdotes, but not beyond that.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of explanation and advice about trust and betrayal checks out with common sense, I just wouldn't call it “science of trust” without some rigor.