Dr Paul C. Bauer: "Is there an Affective Component of Political Trust Ratings in Surveys?"

Part of the series of lectures "Politics in Europe"

Date: 18.06.2024
Time: 16:30-18:00
Place: Building B1 7, room 0.08

Event at LSF

 

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Dr. Paul C. Bauer

Dr Paul C. Bauer conducts research at the University of Freiburg (Institute of Political Science) and the LMU Munich (Institute of Statistics). He also heads a research project on trust measurement at the MZES Mannheim. He originally studied political and administrative science at the University of Konstanz before completing a double master's programme at the University of Konstanz and the University of Pompeu Fabra. Paul C. Bauer then completed a doctorate in social sciences at the University of Bern. After completing his doctorate, he worked for several years as a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute and as a Research Fellow at the MZES Mannheim. His research focuses on political sociology, computational methods and digital behavioural data. He investigates how citizens and political elites are affected by the increasing digitalisation of the political and social sphere and how they adapt their behaviour. He also researches the use of new methods (AI) and forms of data (big data, behavioural data) to investigate social science issues.

 

 

Summary

The study of the determinants of political trust has a long tradition in the social sciences, not least because of the influential role that trust plays in various social phenomena, such as voting behaviour or interpersonal cooperation. Our study sheds light on the influence of emotions on political trust. Previous studies were often based on the assumption that trust is based on informed and rational judgements. We question this cognitive approach and refer to scientific debates that emphasise both emotional and cognitive dimensions of trust. In my talk, I will present a recent study in which we use newer survey methods to collect open-ended audio responses. We then classify these responses using AI tools to recognise moods (sentiment analysis) and emotions. Our results point to the value, but also the limitations, of these newer methods for social science research. Moods and emotions seem to have an impact on the trust judgements we usually measure in our surveys. In my presentation I will summarise the findings.