In this contribution I deal with a novel theory of trust by accounting for its importance in the improvement of pre-existent institutions. I maintain that it can be useful as a social tool if it increases cooperative firmness and unity. However, I also point out that it can be exploited if the individual member is not in the condition of exerting a critical and autonomous trust towards the institutions. Eventually, I claim that, in order to incentivize critical trust, we necessitate to institutionalize it and to make it able to strengthen the other institutions by fostering what I call practices of trust. Practices of trust are those practices enhancing the critical and aware participation to the social context.
