Welcome to the Trust Lab! We are an interdisciplinary project led by Dr Gabriela Jiga-Boy at Swansea University with funding secured from Morgan Advanced Science Institute (MASI)'s Summit Grants. We combine social psychology, politics, and law to investigate political trust.

​

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Trust is everywhere. COVID-19 accelerated research on political trust; and media commentators invoke trust and crises of trust as major power players in how we deal with challenges. Research-wise, we know that trust matters: Trust in governance enhances compliance with COVID-19 measures such as booster shots, mask mandates, or social distancing (Devine et al., 2021; Hauser Tov, 2021). Trust can trump divisions: When citizens trust their partisan leaders, they will comply with stay-at-home orders despite entrenched partisanship (Goldstein & Wiedemann, 2021). Trust is one key element that citizens think the current political discourse needs most (Renwick, Lauderdale & Russell, 2023). When trust is challenged, people comply less (Fancourt et al., 2020); and when citizens feel distrusted by those governing, they perceive society as anomic and disengage from being agentic political actors (Bornand et al., 2022).

 

But do those governing think that trust should be a staple consideration in policymaking? Do politicians integrate trust in the way they make decisions? Do they trust the public to be willing and able to comply with policies particularly when these clearly benefit the community but come at high personal cost? And how much do citizens feel trusted by those governing?

 

Answering these questions is transformational for the impact of trust research: Without knowing whether trust truly matters for everyone, we will waste precious resources in researching trust, and have endless, but pointless conversations. This project aims to:

​

1. Set up an ambitious research agenda on (meta)perceptions of trust among policymakers and the public, and

2. Develop a policymaker-engagement toolkit to help policymakers integrate trust-related concerns in their decision making and communication styles.

​

​

​​