Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Eliesh O. Lane

Abstract

The impact of voters’ moral development on trust in politicians is a rarely explored phenomenon among scholars studying why voters trust politicians. It is unknown whether voters’ moral development plays an influential role in their decisions to trust those they elect to public office, or if they simply respond to the best political show. The purpose of this study was to examine this phenomenon and determine whether voters’ moral development impacted their trust in politicians regardless of age, gender, education, income, and religion. The study surveyed 110 eligible voters in a midwestern city in the United States using two survey instruments: The Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2) and the Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS). The DIT-2 collected data to measure voters’ moral development, while ITS collected data on trust. The research was cross-sectional in its approach and quantitative in its design. Stratified sampling ensured voters throughout the city had equal chance of participating in the study. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to import the covariates into the model and analyze the data. The SPSS statistical software version 25 was used to transform the data, create tables, and display the outputs that showed the results. The results of the study showed that voters’ moral development and the covariates had no statistically significant impact on trust. Positive social change implications from the study include the knowledge that trust in politicians is predicated upon other attributes such as character, experience, performance, and fitness to serve rather than the moral views of voters.

Download

Share

 
COinS