( CNN ) -- `` Can we trust that politician ? '' Typically , that 's the question we ask when assessing a political candidate . But with Mitt Romney , I think the question should go the other way around : Does he trust us ? And there 's a lot of evidence that he does not . Why else would Romney be so guarded ? So afraid to open up to us about who he really is ? Romney does n't want to talk about the details of his work at Bain Capital -- the private equity firm he ran for 15 years . He 's reticent to talk about his faith . He wo n't offer us details about various policy positions despite fellow Republicans urging him to do so . And the biggest sign of his lack of trust is his refusal to release more than two years of his income tax returns . Maybe it 's not us . Perhaps Romney just has `` trust issues . '' I 'm not a psychologist , and my sister , who is one , has made it clear I know nothing about this field . ( We can just chalk that up to sibling rivalry . ) But you do n't have to be Dr. Phil ( or my sister ) to sense intuitively that Romney is an extremely private , risk-adverse individual . He is so standoffish , he makes John Kerry look like Will Smith . His reserve might be fine in the corporate boardroom where you 're judged primarily on the company 's bottom line . But when you are running for president , likability is important -- even more than policy positions for some voters . And on a purely human level , it 's hard to like a person if you do n't feel like you know him or her because that person is intentionally keeping something from you . In the absence of information , it 's natural to sense there is a less than positive reason for the evasive behavior . Opinion : Why Mitt Romney is losing . The consequences of Romney 's holding back can be seen in two polls released this week . The first , released Wednesday by ABC News/Washington Post , found that only 40 % of Americans view him favorably -- in contrast with President Barack Obama who maintains a 53 % favorability rating . And worse , Romney is viewed unfavorably by 49 % of Americans -- an increase of a whopping 18 percentage points since the beginning of this year . And a CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday finds Obama has opened up a seven-point lead over Romney . If Romney wants to win this election , he needs to trust us -- to stop keeping things from us and tell us who he is as a person , not a politician . And he had a great chance to do just this at the NAACP Convention in July when he told the audience : `` I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart ... you would vote for me for president . '' This was Romney 's moment to tell us what is in his heart . Instead , he proceeded to recite his generic stump speech . Like Ebenezer Scrooge waking up on Christmas morning realizing he still has chance to right his life , so does Romney . He should immediately release his past tax returns for at least three or four years . Polls show that a majority of Americans want him to do just that -- - just like so many other presidential candidates have in the past , including his father who ran for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination and released a dozen years of tax returns . The likely reason Romney wo n't release the past returns is fear . And that 's not based on something I learned in Psychology 101 . It 's what Ann Romney -- his wife -- stated during an interview with ABC News in July . There , she said that if they released additional tax returns , the information contained in them would be used to attack Mitt . She is 100 % correct on that one . Both sides in this race will use anything and everything against each other . Romney saw this happen firsthand during the Republican presidential primaries when he released a tax return . His fellow Republicans immediately pounced on the low rate of taxes he paid . But here is where trust comes in . Romney has to trust that we know the difference between political BS and real issues . While the Obama campaign will attack Romney 's return , it does not mean most Americans will be swayed by it . Plus Mitt needs to understand this about the average American : We are more concerned with what taxes we are paying , not what the Romneys paid . Romney may find want to heed the advice of the Chinese philosopher , Lao Tzu , who stated : `` He who does not trust enough , will not be trusted . '' Romney needs to show some faith in us . Let us in to see who he really is -- flaws and all . Opening up could just be the thing that propels him to victory in November . Or Romney can simply remain guarded and closed off -- leaving us with the question : If Mitt does n't trust us , why should we trust him ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah .
Dean Smith : Many of Mitt Romney 's problems are a result of holding back information . He says candidate should release more tax returns , open up about Bain , detail policy changes . Obeidallah : If a man wants Americans to trust him , he must trust them .