A longitudinal and experimental study of the impact of knowledge on the bases of institutional trust

Abstract

This study examined a knowledge-centered theory of institutional trust development. In the context of trust in water regulatory institutions, the moderating impact of knowledge was tested to determine if there were longitudinal changes in the bases of institutional trust as a function of increases in knowledge about a target institution. We hypothesized that as people learn about an institution with which they were previously unfamiliar, they begin to form more nuanced perceptions, distinguishing the new institution from other institutions and relying less upon their generalized trust to estimate their trust in that institution. Prior to having specific, differential information about a new institution, we expected institutional trust to be a function of generalized trust variables such as dispositional trust and trust in government. The longitudinal experiment involved 185 college students randomly assigned to one of three information conditions. Every 3 months for 15 months, participants read information about water regulatory institutions or a control institution. At each time point, participants reported their trust in and perceptions of the trust- and distrust-worthiness of the water regulatory institutions. Participants also completed measures of knowledge of water regulatory institutions, dispositional trust, and governmental trust. Our manipulation check indicated that, as expected, those in the experimental group increased in subjective knowledge of water regulatory institutions to a greater extent than those in the control condition. Consistent with our hypotheses, there was some evidence that, compared to the control group, the experimental group relied less on their general trust in government as a basis for their trust in water regulatory institutions. However, contrary to our hypotheses, there was no evidence the experimental group relied less on dispositional trust as a basis for institutional trust. There also was some evidence the experimental group’s trust in water regulatory institutions was less affected by fluctuations of trustworthiness (but not distrustworthiness) perceptions over time. This suggests that knowledge results in the development of more stable institutional trust attitudes, but that trustworthiness and distrustworthiness perceptions may operate somewhat differently when impacting trust in specific institutions.

Testing a Social Schematic Model of Police Procedural Justice

“…Procedural justice perceptions for different types of actors—especially those encountered later in life, infrequently, and for a short duration—are likely to be strongly anchored in a broader relational justice schema, at least initially. As individuals gain more experience with a specific type of actor (e.g., business partner, supervisor), their associated procedural justice perceptions for that actor should become progressively less anchored in schematic assessments and more strongly tied to the actual quality of treatment received from the actor (for a related discussion, see PytlikZillig et al 2017). Yet for those types of actors who are encountered infrequently, for a short duration, and for which the individual agents constantly change—such as police officers and court personnel—general schematic assessments may continue to play a strong role in the formulation of procedural justice perceptions even after relevant experiences are gained.…”

“…Theoretically, accumulated experiences with a specific type of person or group, such as police, should moderate the effect of relational schemas on attitudes toward that person or group. As individuals accumulate relevant experiences, they should gradually come to rely more on those experiences than on their general schematic beliefs when judging behavioral tendencies (PytlikZillig et al 2017). This is especially likely when those experiences are weighted heavily for information value, which appears to be the case for negative experiences with police.…”

Confidence in conditions of social uncertainty

“…In turn, there is an attitude towards social reality and its objects, expressed in positive categories of trust or in negative categories of hostility 210, 17034 (2020) E3S Web of Conferences ITSE-2020 https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202021017034 and distrust. Thus, the level of trust is changing (Lisa M. PytlikZillig, Christopher D. Kimbrough 2017, [11], Kazuo Okamura, Seiji Yamada Editors [12]).…”

Communicating Sustainability: Using Community Media to Influence Rural People’s Intention to Adopt Sustainable Behaviour

“…Community radios are the only media where poor and disadvantaged people are empowered to participate in the communication process [66,201] and they control the means of communication (way of delivery) [8,23,89,192]. These characteristics enhance CRs' familiarity, credibility and integrity to local people [202][203][204][205], so it removes any doubt about the communication interventions and enhances the trustworthiness of the aired messages [181].…”