Politicization Undermines Trust in Institutions, Even Among the Ideologically Aligned Public

Abstract

Abstract Six studies (five preregistered; total n = 5,925 U.S. adults), testing 40 institutions (e.g., journalists, the World Health Organization, police officers) and 30 academic disciplines (e.g., economists, psychologists, public health) found that perceived politicization—the extent to which political values impact an institution’s work—was associated with lower trust, lower willingness to defer to expertise, lower financial support, and greater skepticism. Institutions and disciplines perceived as the most politicized were also overwhelmingly the least trusted (Studies 1 & 4). Experimental evidence indicated that increasing politicization of a particular organization (e.g., Economics Professors of America) not only caused these negativeoutcomes, but also undermined trust toward entire broader professional groups (e.g., all economists in general; Studies 3 & 5). These negative relationships were observed among both participants who shared and opposed the institution’s ideological slant. In other words, both left- and right-leaning participants were less trusting of both left- and right-leaning institutions that appeared more politicized.Attempts to experimentally decrease perceived politicization mostly failed (Studies 2a, 2b & 5).Although institutions may have important and instrumental reasons for taking political stances, these data reveal that there are costs in trust and support among the entire ideological spectrum of the public.