Inside the ‘black box’: understanding the micro-foundations of political trust

This chapter identifies the need for more analysis of how people form trust judgements; the study of trust as a process (or verb) rather than just as an outcome (or noun). It outlines a general framework for thinking about trust judgements. One route to trust is ‘calculative’, based on deliberative processing of information about the actions and performance of an object. A second, and opposite, route is ‘heuristic’, based on information-poor, but easy to process, qualities and features of an object (such as generalised images and stereotypes). The nature of these two routes is outlined, along with the conditions in which each route is likely to be taken. There are considerable payoffs of a greater focus on trust's ‘micro-foundations’, notably in aiding our understanding of the dynamics of trust and of trust's wider effects. Various ways of extending the research agenda to achieve these goals are identified.