Elisa Shearer

Interpersonal Trust Tracks Civic Engagement More Closely Than Institutional Confidence

Pew Research Center’s analysis groups Americans into four patterns of civic engagement, and finds that the clearest divide among them is not confidence in government or national news but trust in other people. Elisa Shearer, a Pew senior researcher, said the survey cannot establish whether trust leads people to participate or participation builds trust. Practitioners on a panel convened by the Alliance for Social Trust and the Pew-Knight Initiative argued that reliable relationships, meaningful opportunities to act and visible results can help strengthen civic connection.