Institutional Trust and Interpersonal Interaction: A Contact Theory Approach

Abstract

For decades, political and social scientists have sought to quantify and address global concerns about decreasing levels of public trust and confidence in government. Political and institutional trust, and the way this trust is earned and lost, has been attributed to such factors as civic knowledge, institutional performance, prior experience, prior perceptions, cultural or personal predisposition, and ideological alignment, as well as demographic characteristics such as education, age, and gender. While this research has resulted in a deeper understanding of at least some of the conditions and circumstances that contribute to political and institutional trust, the role of social and interpersonal trust, and the link it may have to political and institutional trust, remains underexamined. This thesis directly addresses this gap by employing the Contact Hypothesis—a concept derived from the field of cognitive psychology—as a theoretical framework for interpreting interpersonal interactions between citizens and government representatives at the local level of government. It employs an ethnographic approach, drawing on data derived from semi-structured interviews, participant and non-participant observation, and detailed fieldnotes, in order to build thick descriptions of interactions between citizens and local government representatives. Specifically, four Cambridge-based case studies capture different scenarios in which citizens and council employees worked collaboratively on shared projects in their communities, resulting in sustained, interpersonal interactions. The thesis makes three distinct contributions. Theoretically, it applies insights from cognitive psychology to the study of trust-building in government settings, to argue that a better understanding of inter-personal trust and face-to-face, community-level interaction can offer a new perspective on the relationship between citizens and governments. Methodologically, it shows that the conditions of contact theory—most often utilised by cognitive psychologists in experimental and post-conflict settings— can be effectively applied to a broader array of real-world civic frameworks, including the relationship between citizens and governments. Empirically, the thesis offers new insights into the ways in which citizens are choosing to connect with local government in England, and how these connections impact their attitudes towards government more widely.