Political Trust as an Evaluation against Normative Benchmarks? A Two-wave Survey Experiment on the Role of Normative Benchmarks in the Evaluative Model of Political Trust

Abstract The dominant model that guides scholarly research on political trust rests the assumption this attitude is evaluative. It states citizens evaluate actors’ trustworthiness traits against a set of normative benchmarks. Remarkably, despite its dominance in and serious implications for theories democratic accountability, has not been tested systematically. This paper tests micro-level foundations trust-as-evaluation via an extensive two-wave survey experiment among 15,997 respondents. We assess to what extent benchmarks condition citizens’ politicians with 11 randomized traits. Our findings challenge commonly held view role model. While respondents clearly differentiate trustworthy from untrustworthy ones withdraw negative traits, their do systematically influence judgment. discuss these