ABSTRACT
Allowing government organizations to collect the data necessary to reach a safety judgment and accepting this judgment depends on the trust that an individual has in the individual at hand. This chapter explores how organizations develop reputations of trustworthiness. Specifically in relation to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it examines how assessments of trustworthiness are affected by various other relevant political factors. The starting point for this investigation is to understand how trust operates in relation to political institutions. Institutional legitimacy is a core concept within political science, and it is a consistent focus throughout the social sciences. The chapter focuses on three robust bodies of literature that examine trust. It reviews the determinants of trust in government, and then focuses on the consequences of trust. Finally, it examines the literature on a related concept, agency reputation, where trust (or its absence) shapes the influence that agencies may have.
