Political Scandal and the Public’s Trust: Scandal’s Impact on Trust
Publication Date
Spring 2025
Presentation Length
15 minutes
College
College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Department
Political Science, Department of
Student Level
Undergraduate
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Nathan Griffith
Presentation Type
Talk/Oral
Summary
How does political scandal impact the public’s trust? Since the 20th century, scholars have debated what specific scandal factors cause a depletion in trust among the public. Some research has indicated that increased media usage, particularly new, has shown heightened levels of distrust among the public. In contrast, “old media” typically leads to increased exposure and knowledge of scandal, making it merely a medium. Research has also shown that partisanship leads to greater out-party distrust, while prior cynicism leads to greater assimilation effects, creating distrust among institutions overall. To test how media usage, increased partisanship, and prior cynicism affect trust, I use multinomial logistic regression from years when a political scandal took place to test the effect of each independent variable on public trust with American National Election Studies data.
Recommended Citation
Garrett, Madilyn, "Political Scandal and the Public’s Trust: Scandal’s Impact on Trust" (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 591.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/591
