The alternative view, referred to as the ‗associationist view‘, argues that trust is an
outcome of acceptance rather than a factor implicated in its genesis. Here it is proposed
that people initially respond to a potential hazard on the basis of how they feel about it.
In other words, their willingness to approach or avoid the hazard is made on the basis of
affective reactions which are made before extensive cognitive processing of other
relevant information (cf. Finucane, Alhakami, Slovic & Johnson, 2000). This is referred
to as the ‗affect heuristic‘ – affect precedes cognition – in certain situations emotional
responses precede thought.