Measuring Trust - From Intractable to Trackable

Written By Daniel Shaw

Trust is the invisible thread that binds relationships, organisations, and societies. It’s the foundation of meaningful interactions and successful collaborations. But what exactly is trust, and how can it be measured? This article covers the study, measurement, and operationalisation of trust as a scientific discipline.

The Science of Trust

For centuries, trust was considered a matter of intuition and gut feeling. While those instincts are valuable, science now provides rigorous ways to measure trust. Research spanning over 60 years has uncovered the cognitive, physical, and emotional factors that influence trust - leading to an abundance of theories, models, and psychometric tests.


These seminal studies, see references for key academics papers, have resulted in a robust understanding of trust, revealing its multifaceted nature and critical role in cultural cohesion and organisational performance. Combined, they offer a useful foundational approach, empirical evidence, and frameworks that emphasise the importance of trust in leadership, risk-taking, and relationships. This improved scientific understanding has been translated into practical strategies that are being implemented all around the world to foster trust within teams, organizations, and society. By leveraging these insights, trust-building efforts become more targeted, effective, and sustainable - improving the outcomes that matter most.



Measuring Trust

As a result of this progress in the field of trust research, useful metrics and tools have emerged,  helping to bridge psychology, sociology, and business. These tools have expanded our ability to diagnose, build, and track trust systematically.

  • Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS): Developed by Julian Rotter in 1967, this scale measures generalised trust in others. It is one of the earliest and most widely used tools in trust research.

  • MDS Trust Inventory: Introduced by Roger Mayer, James Davis, and F. David Schoorman in their 1995 paper, this tool measures trust within organisational settings. It is commonly used to study trust in leaders and organisations.

  • General Trust Scale: Created by Toshio Yamagishi and Midori Yamagishi in 1994, this scale measures general trust in people. It includes questions designed to assess an individual’s propensity to trust others in general, rather than in specific contexts.

  • Trustworthiness Index: This tool evaluates the perceived trustworthiness of individuals or organisations based on three core dimensions: ability, integrity, and benevolence. It is often used in organisational and interpersonal trust research to assess how trustworthy an entity is perceived by others.

  • Organisational Trust Index (OTI): Developed by various researchers, this index measures trust within organisations, focusing on the trust employees have in their organisation and its management. It includes questions related to communication, competence, fairness, and reliability within the organisational context.

Through standing on the shoulders of giants in the field, and inspired to close the gap in our understanding of trust, The Global Trust Project, lead by Dominic Wilhelm, developed a framework to provide a comprehensive assessment of trustworthiness and the correlation with impact, The Trust Equity Index (TEi).



The Trust Equity Index (TEi)

The TEi breaks down trust into measurable components, offering a robust way to evaluate trust at personal, organisational, and societal levels. 

Below is the TEi framework. Starting from the left side of the diagram, it describes how trust is assessed and combined with the impact indicators to form the Trust Equity Score.

Elements of Trustworthiness

We define trust as “the willingness to be vulnerable based on expected behaviours”. 

Vulnerability here means risking being let down or hurt. But why would one want to make themselves vulnerable? The answer lies in the behaviours that inspire this willingness to trust.

These behaviours are rooted in the core elements of trustworthiness: Integrity, Benevolence, and Capabilities. 

  • Integrity: Demonstrating honesty, ethical behaviour, and fairness.

  • Benevolence: Showing goodwill and genuine concern for others.

  • Capabilities: Representing skills, competencies, and expertise.

These elements are foundational to establishing and maintaining trust in various contexts, including personal relationships, professional environments, and societal interactions. Integrity, Benevolence, and Capabilities are variform functional universals, established empirically and through literature reviews of six decades of research.

Combined, these elements collectively determine one’s Gross Trust.

Next, we consider the Inclination to Trust—one’s personal tendency to trust others. This is influenced by their past experiences, personality, and cultural background.



Trust Profile

Combining Gross Trust with Inclination to Trust forms a Trust Profile. This profile gives a complete picture of both one’s inherent trustworthiness and predisposition to trust others.



Impact Profile

Trust is applied in service of what matters most to us. We don’t build trust for the sake of it, we build trust so that we can act effectively. To be truly trustworthy our actions must be in service of our strategy and our strategy needs to be trustworthy to create lasting impact. 

The Impact Profile within the TEi framework evaluates the effectiveness and influence of trust through four key elements: Context, Calculated, Competent, and Compelling. Existing strategies are interrogated by these questions and scored accordingly.

  • Context: Assesses how well an individual or organisation understands and reacts to their environment.  An example of this would be a leader who tailors their communication style to suit different cultural contexts within their team.

  • Calculated: Refers to effective planning. In other words, does the plan fit the context?  An organisation that uses data analytics to forecast market trends and make strategic business decisions exemplify this element.

  • Competent: Involves having the necessary skills, competencies, and expertise to execute the Calculated plan, in Context. For example, a project manager who successfully leads complex projects by leveraging their expertise and experience. 

  • Compelling: Acts as a moderator for the overall impact, similar to how Inclination moderates Gross Trust. Reflects how convincingly and effectively the other traits are integrated and presented.  A non-profit organisation that effectively communicates its mission through powerful storytelling, inspiring widespread support and engagement.

By interrogating existing strategies with these questions and scoring them accordingly, the Impact Profile provides a detailed assessment of how well trust is translated into effective action. This profile, combined with the Trust Profile, contributes to the overall Trust Equity Profile and Score, offering a comprehensive measure of trustworthiness and impact.



Trust Equity Profile and Score

Finally, we combine the Trust Profile and the Impact Profile to create the Trust Equity Profile. This integrated profile provides a holistic view of your overall trustworthiness and impact. The Trust Equity Profile is then distilled into a Trust Equity Score, which quantitatively represents your level of trust and effectiveness.

Benefits of the TEi

Think of the TEi as a compass guiding you towards more trusting relationships. By consciously applying the framework to real-world scenarios, you'll:

  • Become a Better Judge of Character: Assess trustworthiness based on integrity, benevolence, and capabilities for informed decisions.

  • Make Sounder Decisions: Combine objective evidence and subjective feelings for wiser trust decisions in various situations.

  • Build Stronger Relationships: Understand trust dynamics to foster deeper connections, effective teamwork, and professional success.

  • Enhance Organisational Culture: Promote transparency, reliability, and respect to drive organisational success and employee satisfaction.

  • Monitor and Improve Over Time: Use TEI to track and enhance trust levels and strategies continuously.

Eager to learn trust-building practices that transform relationships and achieve results? Explore The Trust Master Class, a self-paced course or facilitated training designed by The Global Trust Project to help professionals, teams, and organisations enhance their trust, creativity, and collaboration.

References

  1. Trust, Trustworthiness, and Trust Propensity: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Unique Relationships with Risk Taking and Job Performance (Roderick D. Kramer, 2011): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17638454/

Daniel Shaw
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