Trust is the latest shared societal resource to be disrupted by digital innovation on a global scale. Concerns abound regarding growing distrust in institutions, practices, and professions which were highly trusted. More and more people have less confidence than before in journalism, science, vaccines, schools and universities, otherwise fair and reliable public institutions. Political polarization creates tensions in interpersonal trust relations, and sometimes tears friendships, and even families apart. While skepticism and distrust can also be understood as liberal democratic virtues, online they are all too often subject to ‘weaponization’ at the hands of trolls, online influencers, dishonest politicians and sock puppet accounts connected to authoritarian state sponsored disinformation campaigns. In online environments, where outrage often leads to higher levels of ‘engagement’, these dynamics feed into new ‘coalitions of distrust’ forming across and between different groups united by their shared antagonism of ‘the mainstream’. On the other end of the spectrum, we also see an increase of ‘overconfidence’ in untrustworthy actors. Throughout history, people have often placed trust in questionable hands, but what distinguishes the present is the scale at which this occurs online, where accountability is frequently lacking. The rise of the sharing economy has made it common to trust strangers with our homes, cars, and personal belongings, often without fully considering the risks involved. Similarly, the growing presence of generative AI has led many to trust the output of these systems without hesitation in their daily lives. Trust is fluid, and there are just too many opportunities for it to flow into unwarranted places: the untrustworthy seem to be increasingly trusted, while the trustworthy aren’t.
Thus, trust has become one of the central concepts in the digital society. On the one hand, the trustworthiness of our information infrastructures, such as platforms, AI, and encrypted communications emerged as a central concern (trust in technology). On the other hand, trust relations in the digital society, such as trust in expertise, science, news, or public institutions have been fundamentally disrupted (trust by technology). In each case we may be facing a slightly different formulation of the same fundamental questions:
Trust in technology: First, what makes these new digital innovations (un)trustworthy? What mix of regulation, transparency, accountability, oversights, technical design, business models will provide the greatest confidence that our new digital infrastructures can deliver on their promises, while keeping the best interest of their users and of the society in mind?
Trust by technology: Moreover, how does digital innovation shape trust in the digital society? What are the dynamics that shape trust relations vis-à-vis other people, institutions, technologies, etc.? How do the different components of trust change and transform due to digitization: the circumstances of the one who trusts, the characteristics of the one to be trusted, the environment in which trust emerges (or not).
Scope of the Special Issue
This Special Issue, an outcome of the Amsterdam Trust Summit 2025, invites submissions that address these questions. In particular, we encourage submission addressing the following themes:
Theories of trust and distrust in the digital society: Theoretical and empirical work on technology-related risks, uncertainties, and harms as well as benefits and new dynamics, and both new and revisited models of trust and distrust in and as mediated by digital technology.
Trust dynamics around emerging technologies: Trust processes and changes in trust over time related to specific technologies, such as AI, platforms, self-driving cars, blockchains, as they are developed, implemented, and negotiated across various societal domains. These domains include journalism, science, the justice system, education systems, economic transactions, labor, finance, supply chains, public institutions, interpersonal relations, and epistemic frameworks.
Individual trusting behaviors and impacts around technology: Work focusing on extending trust theory regarding the antecedents, processes, and consequences of trusting behavior vis-à-vis technology, as well as shifts in trust behaviors through technology mediated relations.
Trustworthiness safeguards of socio-technical infrastructures: Empirical and doctrinal research around trustworthiness and regulation, self-regulation, trust and safety teams, technical designs and architectures of trustworthiness, and trustworthiness by markets and competition.
Narratives of trust and distrust in popular culture: Research that addresses the issue of trust and distrust in media and social media conversations, conspiracy thinking and the prevalence of conspiracy theories, the rise and impact of fake news, as well as misinformation and disinformation in (social) media content. We expect work in this area to not only document these narratives but also critically analyze their construction, circulation, and effects.
Methods of studying trust in the information age: This theme invites contributions that critically reflect on how emerging or technologically facilitated methods can provide new insights into trust itself. Methodological work focusing on various research methods, such as quantitative trust research, including surveys and questionnaires, experiments, statistical modelling, network analysis, content analysis, network modeling, time series analysis, computational methods (textual, audiovisual); qualitative trust research, including interviews, case studies, ethnography, qualitative content analysis, think aloud studies; and interdisciplinary approaches to study trust in the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, communication science, neuroscience, economics etc. We especially welcome work that demonstrates how these methods uncover dynamic, contextual, or previously inaccessible dimensions of trust.
As we face growing challenges in understanding trust amidst technological mediation and disruption, this Special Issue aims to shed light on these issues. The contributions that will be featured are intended to explore diverse perspectives on how trust is mediated and reshaped by technological infrastructures, and whether and how we can deal with these developments. By engaging with the complex socio-technical and political interplay between individuals, institutions, and technologies, we hope this issue will inspire further research and offer meaningful insights into the limitations and safeguards of a trustworthy digital society.
