The Dynamics of Trust and Trustworthiness Perceptions in a Government Agency: A Longitudinal Perspective

Abstract

Although trust is widely recognized as key to effective public administration, little is known about trust dynamics, especially in typical governance relationships. We conducted an intensive longitudinal experience sampling study via a weekly survey of Florida residents’ ( N = 97) trust in and perceptions of the trustworthiness of the (US) National Hurricane Center over a 25-week hurricane season. We estimated two-level time series models to examine reciprocal relationships among four constructs: trust, ability, benevolence, and integrity. All four exhibited significant intraindividual variability such that participants demonstrated change in their ratings of the agency over time. Ability perceptions showed the greatest variability over the study duration. In line with classic models of trust, previous-week trustworthiness perceptions were significant predictors of subsequent trust. Our results also provide some support for self-reinforcing accounts of trust by demonstrating that previous-week trust predicted subsequent trustworthiness. Several of the one-week lagged relationships weakened substantially when tested with two-week lags, suggesting that trustworthiness is the stronger driver of trust. Overall, our results demonstrate that trust is not static, even in business-as-usual governance relationships. Results position perceptions of ability, benevolence, and integrity as partially responsible for changes in trust over time. Further, an exploratory analysis suggested that people who reported higher average integrity perceptions tended to have more stable trust. Thus, all the dimensions of trustworthiness serve as short-term levers for administrators seeking to positively manage relationships with the public, and integrity may be most critical for supporting steady levels of trust.