Measuring and Explaining Trust (TRUSTME)

• Applicant: Dr. Paul Cornelius Bauer
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449946260

Starting with early contributions in the 60s, the concept of trust has moved to centre stage in contemporary empirical sociology and social science. Social scientists study trust because they assume that high levels of trust reflect a social reality in which people are more trustworthy and tend to cooperate more frequently. The idea that trust is linked to cooperation dates back to the earliest works on the concept. Only actors who trust each other cooperate with each other, i.e., exchange information, resources, etc. Entering a cooperative relationship normally requires a certain level of trust, and the same is necessary to sustain that relationship. Despite the advances that have been made, there is still a lively debate around two central questions: (1) How can we measure trust? and (2) How can we explain differences in trust? The project "Measuring and Explaining Trust (TRUSTME)" focuses on these questions. The objective of the project is to develop better and more differentiated measures of trust and to investigate why there is such a strong variation of trust across people and situations. Thereby, the project applies a set of novel and innovative techniques to achieve these research objectives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants