Ground squirrels share important information about food sources and the kind, direction, and speed of approaching predators using complex vocalizations and gestures and maintain cooperative and altruistic ties with trusted neighbors that are reinforced by scent sharing during greeting behaviors that resemble kissing. Humans as well as ground squirrels rely on trust networks to convey reliable information about things we cannot ourselves verify, such as factual and scientific information. If the connections to the experts are broken, our understanding of reality becomes untethered. Society then begins a slide into “truth decay.” If we want to reverse that process, we need to rebuild networks of trust.

The floor graphic represents the flow of reliable information within a social network and serves as a score for a scent-sharing ritual and performance.