Evidence of how ‘trust first’ strategies work

Trust thought for today - more evidence on how 'trust first' strategies are appropriate and effective.

Covid Lesson: trust the public with the hard truths

I love this piece in Nature from Michael Bang Petersen highlighting that governments who realise that citizens can be trusted to act in communal interest treat us with respect instead of infantilising us as unable to deal with hard problems. Here are a few highlights:

"Upholding trust is key: it is the best predictor of vaccine acceptance and an antidote to misinformation."

"Authorities that distrust the population also downplay negative or complicated facts. Rather than explaining emerging evidence of, say, waning immunity or new variants, paternalistic authorities resort to vague reassurances." (Don't we know that all too well!)

In 1997, political scientist and economics Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom warned that policymakers were creating “cynical citizens with little trust in one another” by acting without regard for people’s ability to think for themselves. Perhaps such problems persist because governments have increasingly relied on behavioural advice rooted in research on psychological biases. Although such research does not intend to promote the view that populations are irrational, it routinely highlights errors in human decision-making, which can amplify views already popular among political elites.

'What can be done to ease this mutual distrust? To borrow from game theory, only the authorities can act as first mover. If authorities do not dare to trust, citizens never will."

Lots of this underlying thinking in my report. Cheered me up.

One maybe for you if not seen Michelle Patel, Jon Alexander, Liz Bohm, Reema Patel, Sam Brown, Mathew Mytka, Kent Grayson, Philipp Kristian ♾

Interesting negative take on behavioural science that I agree with and has been bugging me for a while - any thoughts? Caitlin Connors (she/they), Roger Miles, Ruth Steinholtz