Naïve and Critical Trust: An empirical analysis of a trust typology

For democracies, trust is a double-edged sword. On one side, while democracies demand a certain level of trust for political institutions, on the other, they also require an active and attentive public with a healthy scepticism of government and the willingness to change it should the need arise. Following this argument, this paper defines trust as an attitude of individuals driven by exposed information, personal cognitive features, and an interaction between the two, producing positive and negative consequences on attitudes and behaviours related to democracy and theorises two sub-types as naïve and critical, and scrutinises their relationship to trust in the Turkish electoral management body, YSK. Naive trust can be defined as an attitude of individuals who unquestioningly believe in their views and the accuracy of the information they receive regarding the object of their trust. Such an attitude includes uncritical trust in political authorities without scrutinising their intentions or dubious methods. In that sense, naïve, blind and excessive trust in governments comes with the risks of fostering political indifference, promoting a decline in public vigilance and government control, and eventually harming democratic functioning. Naive trust can have harmful consequences by eliminating the ability to resist persuasive information and malicious propaganda (Nai et al., 2017). On the other hand, critical trust exists when individuals are reflexive toward the recipient of their trust and display abilities to question beliefs and the accuracy of the information they receive. Individuals with critical trust usually identify accurate information while simultaneously validating this information by referring to alternative sources (Norris, 2022; Gierzinsky, 2018). Accordingly, critical trust is the most desirable position for a democracy from a normative standpoint. This study offers a fresh theoretical approach for setting the naïve and critical trust typologies and examines their link to trust in the Turkish electoral management body YSK, by employing a series of regression models using data based on a country-representative survey carried out in Turkey in April 2023. Findings show that although naïve and critical trust act as solid determinants of democratic satisfaction alongside ideological positions, both types are moderated by partisanship.