IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0175387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa M PytlikZillig
  • Christopher D Kimbrough
  • Ellie Shockley
  • Tess M S Neal
  • Mitchel N Herian
  • Joseph A Hamm
  • Brian H Bornstein
  • Alan J Tomkins

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa M PytlikZillig & Christopher D Kimbrough & Ellie Shockley & Tess M S Neal & Mitchel N Herian & Joseph A Hamm & Brian H Bornstein & Alan J Tomkins, 2017. "A longitudinal and experimental study of the impact of knowledge on the bases of institutional trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-31, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0175387
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0175387
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0175387&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0175387?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Citrin, Jack, 1974. "Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in Government," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 973-988, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Md. Shahzalal & Azizul Hassan, 2019. "Communicating Sustainability: Using Community Media to Influence Rural People’s Intention to Adopt Sustainable Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-28, February.
    2. Tiéfigué Pierrette Coulibaly & Jianguo Du & Daniel Diakité & Olivier Joseph Abban & Elvis Kouakou, 2021. "A Proposed Conceptual Framework on the Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: The Role of Network Contact Frequency and Institutional Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Yeheng Pan & Yu Xie & Hepeng Jia & Xi Luo & Ruifen Zhang, 2022. "Lower Carbon, Stronger Nation: Exploring Sociopolitical Determinants for the Chinese Public’s Climate Attitudes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Antonia Sohns & Gordon M. Hickey & Jasper R. de Vries & Owen Temby, 2021. "Methodological Challenges in Studying Trust in Natural Resources Management," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eric M. Uslaner, 2007. "Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Social Contract in Transition," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0725, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Jaeyoung Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2021. "Can Political Trust Weaken the Relationship between Perceived Environmental Threats and Perceived Nuclear Threats? Evidence from South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-13, September.
    3. Nunkoo, Robin & Smith, Stephen L.J., 2013. "Political economy of tourism: Trust in government actors, political support, and their determinants," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 120-132.
    4. Jae Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2020. "Examining the Moderation Effect of Political Trust on the Linkage between Civic Morality and Support for Environmental Taxation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Jae-Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2022. "Political Trust and Support for a Tax Increase for Social Welfare: The Role of Perceived Tax Burden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-12, June.
    6. Niklas Potrafke & Felix Roesel, 2019. "A banana republic? The effects of inconsistencies in the counting of votes on voting behavior," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 231-265, January.
    7. Nunkoo, Robin, 2015. "Tourism development and trust in local government," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 623-634.
    8. Tao, Ran & Su, Fubing & Sun, Xin & Lu, Xi, 2011. "Political trust as rational belief: Evidence from Chinese village elections," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 108-121, March.
    9. Dmitriy Poznyak & Bart Meuleman & Koen Abts & George Bishop, 2014. "Trust in American Government: Longitudinal Measurement Equivalence in the ANES, 1964–2008," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 741-758, September.
    10. Peggy Schyns & Christel Koop, 2010. "Political Distrust and Social Capital in Europe and the USA," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 145-167, March.
    11. Ayse Kaya & James T. Walker, 2009. "Individual Attitudes towards the Impact of Multinational Enterprises on Local Businesses," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2009-02, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    12. Fischer, Justina, 2011. "Living under the ‘right’ government: does political ideology matter to trust in political institutions? An analysis for OECD countries," MPRA Paper 33344, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Guanghua Han & Simin Yan, 2019. "Does Food Safety Risk Perception Affect the Public’s Trust in Their Government? An Empirical Study on a National Survey in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-15, May.
    14. Jeffrey Milyo & David M. Primo, 2005. "Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence From the States," Working Papers 0513, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    15. Eri Bertsou, 2019. "Political Distrust and its Discontents: Exploring the Meaning, Expression and Significance of Political Distrust," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, October.
    16. Ying Liang, 2016. "Trust in Chinese Government and Quality of Life (QOL) of Sichuan Earthquake Survivors: Does Trust in Government Help to Promote QOL?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 541-564, June.
    17. Mabillard Vincent & Pasquier Martial, 2016. "Transparency and Trust in Government (2007–2014): A Comparative Study," NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 69-92, December.
    18. repec:gig:joupla:v:3:y:2011:i:2:p:73-105 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Jean-Luc Pradel Mathurin Augustin & Shu-Yi Liaw, 2020. "Grouping the Americas and Asia-Pacific Countries based on Their ICT Readiness, Prioritization of Travel & Tourism and Tourist Service Infrastructures," International Journal of Marketing Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(2), pages 1-38, March.
    20. Rossi, Stefano, 2015. "What Drives Financial Reform? Economics and Politics of the State-Level Adoption of Municipal Bankruptcy Laws," CEPR Discussion Papers 10984, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Zuo, Bing & Gursoy, Dogan & Wall, Geoffrey, 2017. "Residents’ support for red tourism in China: The moderating effect of central government," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 51-63.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0175387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.