Webinar in November 2024

What makes people trust or distrust politicians?  (November 29, 2024)

In this TRUEDEM webinar, Marte Winsvold (Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway) examines the basis on which people make assessments about whether to trust or distrust political actors. Through a content analysis of 1,105 open-ended survey questions about political trust and distrust, the study finds that people tend to assess (dis)trust of politicians based on whether they see the politicians as predictable, intrinsically committed, competent and responsive. Moreover, the study finds that citizens use different judgement bases to describe trust and distrust, suggesting that the two concepts are not pure negations of each other. While predictability is the most frequently reported basis for trusting politicians, a lack of intrinsic commitment is the most frequently reported basis for distrusting politicians. This study discusses the reasons for and implications of the apparently different bases for weighing judgements on trust and distrust [See full article text].

Marte Slagsvold Winsvold is a Norwegian political scientist and a senior researcher at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oslo, and her research primarily focuses on political representation, participation, and trust, especially within the context of Scandinavian governance. Winsvold has explored how trust-based management and participatory governance models influence political leadership, as well as the implications of municipal reforms on public trust in Norway.