Political Trust

How does a major corruption scandal shape public support for democratic institutions? This study uses the unexpected timing of Brazil’s historic 2015 corruption revelations to estimate causal effects on system support.

This article asks whether three different justification framings for a road traffic emission trading system (ETS)—energy independence, economic resilience, and efficient climate mitigation—change public acceptance depending on people’s party preference and their level of political trust. Using an online survey experiment in Finland, the authors examine how framing effects vary across supporters of different parties and among respondents with high versus low political trust, and report that framing effects are conditional rather than uniform.

Conventional wisdom holds that vote buying erodes trust in elections, but systematic evidence is scarce. Three expectations were evaluated: a general negative relationship between vote buying and electoral trust; reduced effects among citizens who view vote buying positively; and reduced effects in contexts already marred by electoral irregularities.

Trusted sources are essential for effective gun control policy debates.

Citizens are affected by elite partisan polarization in several ways, including political distrust and partisans' own polarized views. However, it was unclear if these effects stem from parties moving apart on issues or increasing disrespect between them.

Does prosecuting politicians for hate speech erode public trust in the legal system and democracy? This article examines how Geert Wilders' 2016 conviction for hate speech affected Dutch citizens. Using three complementary research designs, it demonstrates that prosecution can harm democratic attitudes even among those disagreeing with targeted rhetoric.

Introduction: Have you ever questioned the accuracy of a political poll but still felt confident in its findings once it confirmed your views? New research suggests this isn't an isolated suspicion—this tendency toward confirmation bias actually strengthens our trust in polls, even when they're demonstrably flawed.

This study investigates the relationship between internet adoption, citizen political trust, and different governance systems across nations.

Civil wars often leave deep scars, especially when governing requires trust among ex-combatants. This hurdle to peace has been understudied despite its critical role.

Comprehensive Trade Agreements (CTAs) — a new generation of free trade deals — challenge traditional models of trade preferences. This research identifies citizens' trust in government as a key predictor of Members of the European Parliament (MEP) support for CTAs and presents a unified framework that combines economic and noneconomic factors to explain trade preferences.

This study explores Britons' attitudes toward environmental taxes through survey experiments.

In post-conflict nations like Liberia, rebuilding civilian confidence in security institutions is crucial. This article argues that female ratio balancing reforms—often seen as a niche policy—are effective because they meet key criteria: demonstrating restraint and promoting inclusiveness.

What is the effect of the economy on political trust across Latin America? Previous studies looked at this issue synchronically—using single cross-sections at the individual or aggregate level—and found a citizenry that is often dissatisfied, less tolerant of the political class, and inclined to de-legitimize political institutions. This study takes a longitudinal approach to unpack how objective economic conditions and citizens' economic perceptions jointly shape political trust.

This study examines how xenophobic rhetoric affects immigrant political behavior.