A Multidimensional and Cross-cultural Scale for Measuring Institutional Trust

Trust is a central concept in establishing and maintaining a positive relationship between the organization and the public. However, recent studies have demonstrated declining levels of trust in governmental agencies in many countries. Understanding the mechanism underlying institutional trust is critical to obtain public's cooperation and compliance in risk. However, a lack of consensus surrounds the concept of trust due to inconclusive definitions, deficient measurements, unsolved problems of scale, and debates about cross-cultural applicability. Addressing this methodological confusion, our article develops an integrated, multidimensional, and cross-cultural scale for measuring institutional trust. Over 7,000 representative, large-scale samples from two Western societies (nUnited Kingdom = 1,544; nUnited States = 1,510) and three Chinese societies (nMainland China = 2,184; nHong Kong = 1,153; nTaiwan = 761) were used to refine and validate the scale. Results demonstrated that the refined scale, which includes measures of ability, benevolence, and integrity, had satisfactory construct reliability, structural validity, and cross-cultural applicability. Theoretical, practical, and cultural implications derived from the findings are elaborated.