Trust is...
A person's felt willingness to rely upon, follow the directions of, be subject to, or otherwise be vulnerable to some target entity, such as the courts.
For example, is the person willing to mobilize the law to address issues they care about? Is the person willing to fully engage in court processes? Does the person feel comfortable with the control the courts have over themselves and their communities?
Importantly, this “willingness” represents the essence of trust. Thus, it is not a question of whether individuals actually will come to court or follow court orders but whether those individuals are comfortable with the fact that they are subject to the authority of the courts. This means that trust cannot come from external coercive forces, but from internal motivations stemming from positive assessments of the entity. If communities cooperate because they are forced to or do not have other options, then this is not trust.
Trustworthiness is...
The perceived worthiness of an entity (such as the courts) to be trusted.
Research generally finds that when we believe that something is worthy of trust, we generally do trust it. These trustworthiness characteristics come in many forms. The most common include:
- abilities and competencies such as knowledge and skills in applying the law
- a sense of care and concern for the those they will impact
- the integrity to do the right thing by, for example, being honest and fair
Other terms used to describe common trustworthiness perceptions include benevolence, competence, character, legitimacy, fairness, shared values, and neutrality.
Importantly, these characteristics are generally understood to be necessary but insufficient conditions of trust, and may not be equally weighted. That is, people also want the courts to be able to protect the specific vulnerabilities they care about most. Thus, when a community is most concerned about racial disparities, knowledge of the law may not be the most important ability. Instead, the public may prioritize the perception that the court cares enough—and has sufficient ability and integrity—to engage with the community to hear and act upon its perspective.
According to the definitions above,
- Trust refers to a psychological state within the person doing the trusting (the trustor)
- Trustworthiness refers to the extent that the assessed entity is believed to be worthy of trust.
- Court processes can impact perceptions of trustworthiness.
There are certainly other things that can impact trust, but this simple model highlights the central point: For trust to healthy and be robust, trustworthiness should both exist in court processes and be perceived by the trustor.
This distinction between perceptions and actualities may seem familiar. In fact, some may believe certain publics are ill-informed or misperceiving the courts, and that the courts are already trustworthy. If it is the case that the trustee really is already trustworthy, it may seem best and most efficient to focus on changing the various publics’ perceptions through education instead of trying to change the courts’ trustworthiness. Even if this is true, the perspective of this toolkit it that it is still better to focus on building trustworthiness.
"Often the best way to build trust is to build trustworthiness."
This toolkit is written from the perspective that the best way to build trust is to focus on building trustworthiness.
This is not to say that sometimes distrust is not based on faulty information. It is possible that distrust was originally created through misperceptions or misunderstanding, and that levels of trust are not reflective of actual processes. However, in such cases, we still recommend demonstrating a willingness to adjust processes and build trustworthiness rather than engaging in attempts to persuade people their distrust is ill-founded. Why? Because persuasion attempts can backfire and suggest you do not trust the trustor.
How Do I Build Trust Through Trustworthiness?
First, recognize that trust begets trust. Second, you can build trust by being willing and making efforts toward “custom building” trustworthiness. You can do this by being responsive to the needs and actual and perceived vulnerabilities of various trustors.
