Royal ruckus

It should have been an innocuousHarmless. Mother's Day tweet. A charming photo of Kate MiddletonThe wife of the UK's Prince William, now more often known as the Princess of Wales. She is Britain's future queen. and her three children all with wide smiles.

Then users noticed something was off. Their hair did not behave the way hair should. Bits of clothing seemed to blur into each other. And why did all the kids have their fingers crossed?

Then the real kicker: one by one, international news agencies put out a "kill notification" on the photo, meaning it was being retractedTaken back or recalled. because it had been edited.¹

For 24 hours, no comment from the palace. SpeculationGuessing. ran wild. Then yesterday morning it put out a statement from Kate stating that she had edited the photo herself.²

But the damage was done. Many said it was not believable.

For weeks, wild rumours have been circulating about Kate's health and whereabouts. Now the royals have just poured fuel on the fire.

It is not even the first time the Royal Family has been taught this lesson. In 1820, George IVThe King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1820 to 1830. became king and immediately set about trying to divorce his wildly popular wife Caroline.

So when George put her on trial, the public was outraged. They trusted their beloved queen far more than their obnoxiousOffensive, unpleasant or rude. king. The trial had to be halted.³

Some thinkers believe trust is what keeps society going. AnthropologistSomeone who studies human beings and societies. The word "anthropology" comes from the Greek "anthropos", meaning "human". It developed as a subject in Europe in the 19th century, although some regard the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun as the first anthropologist. David Graeber argued that for most of human history we did not buy the vast majority of our goods.⁴

Instead, if you needed a pair of shoes, you would just go and ask for some from your shoe-maker neighbour. Then when you had the opportunity you would pay him back with your own produce - say, once your tomatoes are in season, you would go and give him a bag.

But that relies on a bond of trust between you.

This might all make the foundations of society seem very shaky. Scottish philosopher David HumeThe Scottish philosopher argued that all human knowledge is acquired through experience and therefore embracing the unknown is a fundamental part of being human. laid out one big problem with trust: the free-rider problemIn economics, a type of market failure when people who benefit from resources do not pay for them, or under-pay. .⁵

He observed that sometimes, a big task needs many people to work individually to get it done. But the temptation for each worker will be to slack off on their bit and leave more work to the others.

Hume's friend Adam SmithAn 18th-Century Scottish economist often known as the "father of economics". thought he had an answer to this. He argued that the "invisible hand" of the market would take away from those who did not chip in and give to the hard-working.⁶

That meant people did not really need to trust each other. They just had to trust that the system would reward them for their hard work.

Have the royals lost all trust?

Yes: Doctoring photos is something dictatorsRulers with total power over a country. do - people like Joseph StalinDictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including sentencing around a million political opponents to death and prison. and Kim Jong Un. It is a form of lying to the public. Now all output from the palace will face fiercer scrutiny.

No: This is really nothing more than a bunch of bored people having fun with a silly situation. Few will have noticed and even fewer really care that the royals lightly touched up a photo.

Or... This story will disappear quickly, but it suggests the royals' PRPublic Relations - the practice of managing how others see a brand or person. operation is not up to scratch. That could become a much more serious problem for the monarchy when the Prince and Princess of Wales inherit the throne.