Trust is a key component of interpersonal and social relationships. Existing research suggests that the process of building trust involves both affective and cognitive components. Yet questions remain about how emotions and cognitions are involved in the formation of trust in adolescents, both in their relationships with other people and towards the political system. A new qualitative study examined how adolescents from Serbia, Italy and the Czech Republic formed these two types of trust during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The study involved researchers from universities around the world, including Jana Fikrlová and Lenka Štěpánková from INPSY. The authors decided to explore whether and how the formation of two different types of trust - interpersonal and political - differs. They conducted focus groups with 88 participants aged 11-19. They used reflective thematic analysis to identify patterns related to trust building.
Found dimensions:
- Affective: care, similarity and reciprocity
- Cognitive: knowledge, expertise, competence and criticalness
The affective component plays a larger role in interpersonal trust, the cognitive component in political
The interviews showed that while the affective dimension was more prevalent in interpersonal trust, the cognitive dimension was more prominent in political trust. However, both components were reflected to some extent in both types of trust. Thus, a person may simultaneously trust and distrust the same close person or political authority in different domains based on different affective and cognitive bases.
Interpersonal trust was perceived by participants as bidirectional, where the responsibility for trust is shared by both parties in the relationship. In contrast, political trust was perceived as unidirectional - adolescents did not consider their own influence on the behavior of political authorities, nor did they expect political authorities to reciprocate their (dis)trust.
Trust based on the affective dimension was developed through shared history, shared experiences, and emotional closeness. For symmetrical relationships such as friendship, similarity, compatibility, and reciprocity played an important role; for asymmetrical ties (e.g. with parents), care, help, and responsiveness were essential.
When interpersonal trust takes the place of political trust
In the crisis that was the Covid-19 pandemic, more emphasis was placed on the cognitive component of political trust. When adolescents lost trust in political authorities due to their unsatisfactory handling of the crisis, they began to rely more on their own critical thinking or sought information from loved ones instead. These were not only a trusted source of information for them but also provided emotional support. Interpersonal trust thus served as a compensatory mechanism in times of shaken confidence in politicians and the political system.
Aspects of the affective dimension of trust were found in adolescents across all countries studied. Trust in family members was particularly pronounced in Serbia. Italian adolescents, in addition to expressing affective aspects in building political trust, showed the greatest criticality of all countries. Czech adolescents perceived criticality as worthy of appreciation.
The study shows that trust formation among adolescents is not a simple or straightforward phenomenon. Young people combine both affective and rational components in deciding when and whom to trust. The findings of this research offer useful insights for guiding the communication of authority figures and family members with adolescents during future crises.
Recommended citation:
Đorđević, A., Fikrlová, J., Ćeriman, J., Padoan, E., & Štěpánková, L. (2025). Affective and cognitive dimensions of building interpersonal and political trust in Adolescence: a Qualitative study. Youth & Society, 00(0), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x251323908
