Trust

Although trust has a commonsense familiarity, defining trust has been a central sociological concern, with different definitions often being intimately tied to authors' wider theoretical projects. Nonetheless, there are some common attributes of trust and several familiar axes in thinking about the dynamics of social trust. Trust is a form of faith in the outcome of another's actions or of institutional responsibilities. It exists in a context of imperfect knowledge and future contingency, and, as such, it is a form of belief despite uncertainty. In modern societies trust has been conceived as a mechanism that helps reduce complexity and enhance communications. It is also seen as a substitute for more formal methods of regulation such as contract. Examined as either the property of individuals or as a social mechanism, trust is typically conceptualized in terms of its positive social consequences, which are often seen as monumental, so much so that a stable foundation of trust has been proposed as a precondition for stable societies.

The first generation of sociologists, including Émile Durkheim and Herbert Spencer, analyzed changes in the nature of trust that they believed were characteristic of the transformation from premodern to modern societies. Today, active sociological research programs examine a series of questions pertaining to trust. These include inquiries into the interpersonal dynamics of trust, the cultural or national differences in trusting relationships, and the kinds of trust that enhance corporate or government performance. Studies of social values and political structures frequently examine the question of whom we trust. Given that individuals cannot independently verify the grounds of most knowledge, trust is also recognized as being a vital epistemological resource that precludes the potentially paralyzing need to personally investigate the veracity of all truth claims.

Other disciplines have also demonstrated a longstanding interest in trust, including political science's focus on the role of trust in democratic governance, psychology's investigations of trust as a personality trait, and economics' focus on trust as an exchange mechanism. Issues of trust are particularly germane to qualitative forms of inquiry as researchers must often establish intimate bonds with research participants, many of whom do not benefit in any immediate way from participating in research. Hence, dynamics of both interpersonal and institutional trust are operational in terms of recruiting and maintaining research participants and also in terms of keeping faith with such individuals. Occasionally, this places a heavy obligation on researchers to understand the expectations of research participants so as to not undermine their trust in the researcher and the research process.

A defining characteristic of trust is that it can be broken. Trust is fragile and is easily undermined through deceit. Considerable sociological research examines structures that arise in a context of reduced trust, including policing, surveillance, and credentialization. The fragility of trust has also led to pronouncements that contemporary societies are experiencing a crisis of trust, attributed to an ostensible decline in the long-standing bases for social cooperation, consensus, and solidarity. Such talk of a crisis can also be seen as symptomatic of a society that is undergoing changes in the dynamics of trust, as individuals are required more than ever before to place their trust in major institutions.

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