A Biological Explanation for Public Distrust in Government?

No matter how you slice it, Americans today are down on government. New research from the Pew Research Center shows that “by almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.”

Compared to the Kennedy-Johnson years, when public trust in government reached nearly 80 percent, today that number has dropped below the 25 percent mark.  Increasingly, Americans claim to want to curtail government growth and limit its power.

While big-picture economic and political explanations abound, one researcher at Claremont Graduate University believes there may be a biological component, as well. Professor Paul Zak recently told NPR that the chemical oxytocin administered by the brain allows us to determine whom to trust.  His research has demonstrated that by increasing the amount of oxytocin an individual receives, the more trusting he or she becomes.

So, as Zak told NPR, he began to wonder, “How much does this scale up?” To what extent could biology – or, oxytocin – affect the public’s trust in government?  As it turns out, people who received more oxytocin did report trusting other people more and those same individuals also claimed to trust their government more.

But, perhaps more telling, is that trust in government usually decreases during periods of economic hardship – that’s when the public is generally exposed to prolonged periods of stress.   And stress, Zak says, is toxic to oxytocin. Stress inhibits the release of oxytocin, which therefore decreases public trust.

So while Republicans and Democrats will both try to explain this recent rebuff of Uncle Sam, perhaps one of the best explanations doesn’t bear any partisan weight at all.