The argument presented here is that individual trust acts facilitate mutual exchange and are, therefore, the ground for the creation, elaboration and sustainability of organisations; specifically, democratic, educational organisations within Canada. The researcher assembles a composite definition of trust, which informs an analysis of themes found in the literature on both leadership and trust. The author argues three propositions based on trust to support the conclusion that trust determines follower receptivity to diverse leader behaviours. Proposition 1 is that, trust and leadership require the free participation of agents. The degree to which agents perceive themselves as free with respect to their interests is a measure of the utility of trust. Proposition 2 that, trust and leadership are relational phenomena necessary for the creation and sustainability of organisations: trust is causative in this regard than is leadership. Proposition 3 is that, the objects of trust and leadership may be concrete as in trust of another person or abstract as in trust in an institution (i.e., in a democracy). Trust is a paradox since the institutionalization of distrust is required for its function. This distrust takes the form of laws, sanctions, customs and norms. Trust is defined by the researcher as a particular item of experience or reality; specifically, the expectation that one will be treated justly in exchanges with others. To trust means to make oneself vulnerable for the purpose of entering into such exchanges, expressly or through an act of law.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that focus on topics in fields of experimental economics and health economics. The first chapter, “Do I Care if You Know I Betrayed You?” , examines how concern for others’ disutility from betrayal can affect the decision to repay trust in the trust game. We use a laboratory experiment to compare trustees’ behavior when betrayal is obfuscated to an identical monetary payoffs situation where betrayal is revealed. We find that more trustees choose to defect in our experiment when betrayal is obfuscated than when it is revealed. Our result suggests that concern for betrayal costs influences not only the decision to trust but also the decision to repay trust. The second chapter, “Increasing Organ Donation via Changes in the Default Choice or Allocation Rule”, utilizes a laboratory experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative public policies targeted at increasing the rate of deceased donor organ donation. The experiment includes treatments across different default choices and organ allocation rules inspired by the donor registration systems applied in different countries. Our results indicate that the opt-out with priority rule system generates the largest increase in organ donation relative to an opt-in only program. However, sizeable gains are achievable using either a priority rule or opt-out program separately, with the opt-out rule generating approximately 80% of the benefits achieved under a priority rule program. The third chapter, “Improving the Approach to Organ Donor Registration”, proposes to improve organ donor registry by providing a persuasive message with the registration request. I designed a laboratory experiment to examine the impact of the persuasive message on donation decisions. The results indicate that the persuasive message has a positive impact on donation decisions in the early rounds of the experiment. Subjects were about 21 percent more likely to register as a donor in round 1 of the experiment when they were provided with a persuasive message. This behavioral difference across treatment decreased as subjects played more rounds, since subjects in the control treatment learned the information in the persuasive message through playing the game. We further find this treatment effect is mainly from subjects who are not organ donors in real life, while the treatment effect is very small for those who are self-reported organ donors.

Teachers tend to think that they can handle students appropriately and objectively. Moreover, teachers think that their trust in students is based on students¡¦ behaviors and is independent on their emotions. However, recent studies have found that emotions or moods may intervene in one¡¦s judgments or decision-making processes. Based on the Affect-as-information Model and the Affect Infusion Model, this study investigated whether the valence of mood among teachers would affect their trust in students in the student misconduct context. Specifically speaking, I conducted an experimental study to examine if teacher trust in students would be enhanced with a positive mood, whereas their trust in students would be lowered with a negative mood. One hundred and fifty-one teachers were recruited to participate in this experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three mood states (positive vs. negative vs. neutral), which was manipulated by the emotional event-recollection technique. After the mood manipulation, participants were asked to rate each of students¡¦ reasons for common misconduct behaviors is trustworthy or not respectively. Results showed that teachers in the induced positive-mood condition exhibited a tendency toward trusting in students¡¦ reasons for misconduct behaviors, whereas those in the induced negative-mood condition revealed an inclination toward mistrusting in these reasons. Besides, differences in the tendency between trust and mistrust were not significant for those teachers in a neutral mood-state. Findings of this research supported the predictions suggesting that moods may impact teacher trust in students.

<p>The debate about a possible crisis of democracy has been present over 30 years. Questionable is what researchers mean when talking about a potential crisis. What are the factors that are causing it? Are we in a crisis of democracy in Western European countries?The goal of this thesis is to evaluate how different authors characterize what some call a crisis of democracy, to define core topics and to test one of these on empirical data. This will be achieved by firstly, analyzing pieces of literature related to the scientific crisis of democracy debate. Secondly, using Hirschmann’s theory of exit and voice, mass data from will be categorized and analyzed under the light of participation and trust in political institutions.Issues that return are overload on government, individualism, participation and a new culture versus old structure. Analyzing people’s trust in political institutions depending on their intention to go to national elections shows trends: people lose trust in the institutions government, parliament and political parties. Separating the data into groups of potential voters, non-voters and blank voters shows that the latter two show a greater mistrust in political institutions and less interest in politics.Overall, the debate on a potential crisis of democracy is multifaceted and varies between different authors. People are less active in traditional ways of participating, but that does not mean that Western European democracies stand before collapse. It could however mean that new forms of participation are needed to engage people in politics again.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 184 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Roy J Lewicki, Labor and Human Resources Graduate Program. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-157).

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model that explains how interpersonal trust develops from interactions in personal relationships. The sample consisted of 311 individuals who were randomly recruited with their dating partners for a longitudinal study on dating relationships. Using interdependence theory as a framework, I tested a model of how trust develops from behaviors and attributions in handling situations of conflicting needs, wants, and desires. This model also examined both the direct and indirect effects of two background characteristics, adult attachment style and parental divorce, on beliefs of trust. The model explored whether attributions partially mediated the direct relationship between the background characteristics and trust. Lastly, multiple group analyses explored whether gender and two developmental factors, stage of relationship involvement and developmental change in relationship involvement, moderated the simultaneous relationships among the predictor variables and trust. The analyses testing my model of the development of trust examined two separate outcomes: trust in partners' benevolence and trust in partners' honesty. The results from the path analyses revealed that the data fit the model for trust in partners' benevolence well enough for the importance of the predictors to be interpreted, but did not fit the model for trust in partners' honesty. The findings showed that in the overall model of trust in partners' benevolence, partners' voice and individuals' attributions were significant predictors of trust. The findings for the multiple group comparisons further revealed that the model was not significantly modified by stage of relationship involvement, developmental change in relationship involvement, or gender. A few marginal findings, however, suggest areas for future research.

This thesis is about government surveillance technology in relation to the value of trust in society. The 2006 EU Data Retention Directive is used as an example of surveillance technology that invades privacy for the sake of security. I will show that trust enables cooperation and morality in society, and ask in what way the Directive relates to these values. The focus lies upon the relation of trust between government and citizens. I will argue that the Directive fails to recognize the value of trust in relation to cooperation and morality in society, because it fails to respect its citizens, and therefore has a bad influence on the climate of trust.

Better communication, more stakeholder engagement, policy integration, policy certainty and more resources to encourage innovation and access are needed to improve the effectiveness of Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT). This British Columbia Crown corporation, created to establish a carbon offset market and facilitate a carbon-neutral government, successfully met its ambitious first year target to offset the provincial government’s operating emissions. Stakeholder interviews reveal most participants feel PCT has been largely effective and has the potential to be replicated with modifications in other jurisdictions. As part of a larger climate change action framework, this instrument can be used to demonstrate innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while helping influence cultural norms and behaviour. It can also play a part in stimulating the local green economy and positioning B.C. as a green innovation hub. Mixed methods have been used to evaluate how effectively PCT is living up to its potential.

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