Webinar in May 2025

Building Trust in Political Office: Testing the Efficacy of Political Contact and Authentic Communication (May 26, 2025)

While a large literature interrogates the causes and consequences of declining political trust in democracies, considerably less work has considered the everyday leadership strategies that might arrest this trend. I tackle this gap as I ask: what can politicians do to build trust? Going beyond the performance perspective current in political science, I suggest that all politicians can build trust by (1) increasing occasions for political contact and (2) utilising authentic political communication. These arguments are developed out of interviews with national politicians in five democracies (N = 51) and tested empirically with observational and experimental survey data gathered from a longitudinal sample of the UK public (N = 705). Attesting to academic work on the contact hypothesis and ‘authentic trust’, as well as the testimony of politicians themselves, these analyses suggest that both strategies carry appraisive potential. These findings contribute conceptually and practically to our understanding of both trust and leadership in politics [Read full article text].

James Weinberg is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Political Science at the University of Sheffield, where he also serves as Director of Education for the School of Sociological Studies, Politics, and International Relations. Additionally, he is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. His research focuses on political behavior—particularly trust, personality, and decision-making—as well as democratic education, with an emphasis on equality of access and outcomes. Weinberg has published in top-tier journals such as the British Journal of Political Science and has secured funding from the ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, and Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. His first book, Who Enters Politics and Why?, has been praised as a leading work on the psychology of UK political leaders, while his second, Governing in an Age of Distrust, has been recognized for reshaping comparative political trust research. He engages actively with policymakers and civil society, earning accolades such as the University of Sheffield's Chancellor's Medal and the UK Political Studies Association’s Richard Rose Prize (2024). In 2022, he was named among 50 influential researchers shaping 21st-century politics by the Apolitical Foundation. He frequently contributes to media, appearing in The Guardian, The Washington Post, BBC, Sky News, and various podcasts.