Katherine Grace Carman

The authors describe development of a survey measure that they used to examine characteristics of human cognitive processing (such as cognitive biases) and assess the results for individual resistance to some aspects of Truth Decay, including blurring of the line between opinion and fact and diminished trust in formerly respected institutions as sources of factual information.

Trust in government and media has declined in the past two decades. Assessing individual characteristics and institutional attributes associated with trust offers insight into this decline and is a first step toward rebuilding institutional trust. Researchers developed a new method to assess these concepts, using a survey of 1,008 respondents and a response scale that distinguishes among trust, lack of trust or distrust, and active distrust.