To better understand how to solve large-scale social dilemmas such as common-pool resource management, this paper provides a interdisciplinary critical analysis of scholarship to reveal the vicious cycle we are currently mired in. It proposes that current approaches to promote pro-environmental behaviour will be limited in their efficacy without a preliminary change in the level of trust among individuals and the systems that purport to support them. It then advances a new focus on large-scale trust building, suggesting paths for future (...) research and a new direction for successful outcomes. (shrink)