The Psychology of Trust: Can Conceptualizing Trust as an Attitude Bridge Divergent Traditions and Move Trust Research Forward?

Trust is key to social relations among individuals, groups, and society at large. Yet, the vast body of trust research remains highly fragmented. One example are the apparently opposing conceptualizations of trust as a inner state versus as behavior and surprisingly weak correlations between them. We propose to integrate disparate research traditions by conceptualizing trust as a favorable attitude towards accepting vulnerability towards a trustee—the Trust-as-Attitude Perspective (TAP). By drawing parallels between trust and attitudes, TAP leverages decades of attitude research to systematize core trust phenomena and resolve critical puzzles. For instance, implications from the attitude-behavior-consistency debate can resolve the inconsistent findings between self-reported trust and trust behavior; research on affect, self-perception, and implicit processes reveals often overlooked drivers of trust (behavior) beyond cognitive deliberation.