GoodWork Paper 52: Trust in the lives of young people:

Author(s): Katie Davis

Editor(s): Howard Gardner, Series Editor

Media: Paper

Description: Trust and distrust play important roles in economic, political, and social life. Trust enables communication and cooperation, while distrust protects us from untrustworthy individuals and institutions. I propose a conceptual framework that identifies and organizes the factors that individuals may draw on to decide whom to trust and distrust. I offer ten types of trust to illustrate how the conceptual framework can be used to make sense of the different ways in which individuals approach a trust judgment. The trust types are hypothesized mental models that may guide an individual‘s trust decision. My colleagues and I are testing these mental models through in-depth interviews with young people between the ages of 15 and 25. Drawing on previous research on youth‘s conceptions of trust, I hypothesize that participants in the current study will consider trust primarily in the context of close, interpersonal relationships. Emergent themes from the interviews support this hypothesis and suggest that youth do not consider distant figures and institutions, such as political figures and government bodies, in trust terms. Further analysis of the interviews will provide us with a deeper understanding of how youth approach trust judgments, as well as the contexts in which they deem trust important. The interview protocols may serve as an intervention that encourages young people to broaden their circle of trust.