Trusting
What You Know: Information,
Knowledge, and Confidence in Social Security
Lawrence
R. Jacobs, Fay Lomax Cook, and Dukhong Kim
Abstract
Political trust and confidence remain low by historic
standards. Although existing research suggests that restoring the
public’s political trust and confidence requires improved government
performance, the fundamental but unexamined question is whether
the public’s faith can be increased by expanding its information
and knowledge about the activities that the government already does
perform. This study examines the impact of increased domain-specific
information on the public’s knowledge and confidence. Using
OLS regression, ordered probit analysis, and path analysis based
on LISREL structural equation modeling, this study examines a large
Gallup survey of attitudes toward Social Security. It finds that
recipients of the Social Security Administration’s personal
Statement experienced higher knowledge and confidence in Social
Security than non-recipients after controlling for individual traits
related to motivation, cognitive capacity, and social location.
These findings suggest that public evaluation of institutional performance
echoes, in part, the quantity and quality of information that government
distributes to citizens. The implication for future research on
political trust and confidence is to confirm the importance of shifting
analysis from global to specific objects of evaluation and from
individual or regime judgment criteria to standards based on institutional
performance.
Lawrence R. Jacobs,Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota Fay Lomax Cook,School
of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Dukhong Kim, Doctoral
student, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University
To Order:
Hard copies of IPR working papers cost $5.00 each (international orders are $10 each). We only accept checks drawn on U.S. bank and payable in U.S. funds. Checks or
money orders should be made payable to Northwestern University and sent to
the following address:
Publications Department - WP Orders
Institute for Policy Research
2040 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208-4100.
For information, call 847-491-8712 or email ipr@northwestern.edu.
Please note that we do not accept credit cards.
