Trust in Government Starts by Lowering Stress in Citizens

Fascinating story on NPR about the “trust” hormone (oxytocin) and one researcher’s findings that trust in the government is related to the amount of stress someone feels at the time.  According to the study, trust in the government is at an all time low because of the stress people feel due to the recession.  When college students were given a squirt of oxytocin they reported feeling more trusting of other people.  From this trust, they also reported less distrust in the government.

So, by promoting wellness and lowering the national stress level, could the government also be promoting better citizen engagement?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 6:33 PM and is filed under neuroscience, public administration, public policy, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Trust in Government Starts by Lowering Stress in Citizens”

  1. willard stumpf Says:
    May 9th, 2010 at 2:28 PM

    Before this story was put out by NPR it appeared in, I believe, Scientific American magazine. What prompted me to look into the subject of trust was to gain a better understanding of logic and reasoning put forth by “The Three Prisoners’ Dillema”, and the “Monty Hall” problem. Quite an interesting theory but if there are any practical appllications I hope it is done by the private sector and not the public sector. I hope no offense is taken by that last sentence.