This project funds a postdoctoral fellow in interdisciplinary trust and confidence research. Public trust and confidence in governmental institutions is integral to democracy and necessary for effective and efficient governance. What does it mean, though, to say there is trust or distrust? The vast majority of studies and theories in trust and confidence are immersed only in one discipline, often ignoring contributions from other social sciences. This proposal funds a postdoctoral fellow, who could come from any social scientific discipline, to join an interdisciplinary team dedicated to developing and testing a comprehensive, multi-stage, interdisciplinary theory of trust and confidence in governmental institutions. The fellow will conduct relevant research and also bring together additional, interdisciplinary researchers interested in advancing trust/confidence research and theory. The interdisciplinary research is being conducted in a variety of settings and contexts where the findings will have practical implications: courts, law enforcement, municipal government, water regulation and natural resource management agencies, and science, including nanotechnology and agricultural biotechnology.
Measurement of trust and confidence and its relationship to knowledge about governing institutions is extremely important to the governing institutions the research team engages. The team has been communicating results of their research to the community organizations; the postdoctoral fellow will be closely involved in coordinating information sharing with governing institutions.
