Consumers — Kevin R. Carriere

Trust & Consumers

Social norms, such as human rights, exist only because we trust that everyone involved in the process of negotiating and protecting these norms will continue to do so. We trust that our government has our best interest at heart, that your neighbor will not steal from you while you are gone, and that you will not be arrested if you have done nothing wrong. But - how do we maintain this trust, and what are the possible outcomes of increasing or decreasing trust?

I've begun to expand this question in a variety of domains. In one line of work, I examine relations between police and citizens, looking at how the militarization of police is increasing conflict with citizens. In a second line of work, my collaborators at John Hopkins Carey Business School and West Virginia University School of Business to examine how trust between buyers and sellers mediates a seller's decision to be altruistic.

With my undergraduates, we have taken this line of research to examine corporate activism.

Trust & Consumers

Recommended Readings: