Verhoest Koen, Latusek Dominika, Six Frédérique, Maman Libby, Papadopoulos Yannis, Schomaker Rahel M, Trondal Jarle
Department of Political Science & GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Centre for Trust Studies, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland.
J Trust Res. 2024 Sep 2;14(2):127-156. doi: 10.1080/21515581.2024.2383918. eCollection 2024.
The relationship between trust and distrust in public governance is still an open question. In the literature, three different perspectives on how trust and distrust are related are intensively debated: (1) trust and distrust as two ends of the same conceptual continuum; (2) trust and distrust as opposites, but with neutral ground in between; and (3) trust and distrust as related, yet distinct concepts. Employing a new measure for distrust and by using perceptual data on trust and distrust in regulatory agencies from multiple types of stakeholders in nine countries and three sectors, this article shows that high trust and high distrust can co-exist at the same time, and that trust and distrust are negatively correlated only to a limited extent. Moreover, while trustworthiness correlates strongly with trust, trustworthiness does not or only weakly correlate with distrust in a negative way. These findings are robust even when controlling for respondents' characteristics, different types of stakeholders, sectors and countries. This suggests that in public governance settings trust and distrust should be considered as distinct concepts, and the article calls for more research into the distinctiveness of the measurement, causes and effects of distrust, compared to trust.
在公共治理中，信任与不信任之间的关系仍是一个悬而未决的问题。在文献中，关于信任与不信任如何相互关联存在三种不同观点，并引发了激烈争论：（1）信任与不信任是同一概念连续体的两端；（2）信任与不信任是对立的，但中间存在中立地带；（3）信任与不信任相互关联，但却是不同的概念。本文采用一种新的不信任度量方法，并利用来自九个国家三个部门多种类型利益相关者对监管机构信任与不信任的感知数据，表明高度信任和高度不信任可以同时存在，而且信任与不信任仅在有限程度上呈负相关。此外，虽然可信度与信任密切相关，但可信度与不信任不存在负相关或仅存在微弱的负相关。即使在控制了受访者特征、不同类型利益相关者、部门和国家等因素后，这些发现依然稳健。这表明在公共治理环境中，应将信任和不信任视为不同的概念，并且本文呼吁相较于信任，应更多地研究不信任在度量、成因及影响方面的独特性。
