The older you get, the less you trust others - accurate or not?

This came up as part of a conversation with a friend last night.

Her contention was that the older we get (we’re both in our 50s) the more likely we are to distrust/not believe what others say. And not just politicians and government, but even friends and co-workers and even family.

Her view was that we were naive (or perhaps clueless) when we were in our 20s and experiences (good and bad) have caused us to develop a ‘cynical gene’ and take everything anyone says with a grain of salt.

I somewhat agreed with her, but not with the blanket statement. My view is that I have much less trust trust in politicians and ‘authorities’ but that friends – real friends – are always trustworthy or they wouldn’t be life long friends.

Is this a gender thing? (I’m male) Is this a personality thing?