ABC News quoted UGA’s Nathan Carter in an article about Americans’ declining trust in national agencies and institutions.
Carter, an assistant professor in Franklin College’s psychology department, said that while people tend to trust public health officials, fears caused by Ebola have increased the sensitivity to perceived breaches in that trust.
Carter said that the balance between trust and doubt has swung more to doubt.
“I do think it’s a big problem; and how to repair that trust, that’s probably the biggest question,” he said.
Carter also told ABC News that peaks of trust following events that rally people around the government—such as terrorists attacks—are not as high as they have been in the past. That, he said, means there is a gradual degradation in the public’s perception of institutions, something that Carter finds worrisome.
