Why Do We Trust Our Congressman?

This analysis focuses on the little examined area of trust in political officials, in specific, constituents' trust in their U.S. House member. Employing new measures of trust in incumbent representatives, a confirmatory factor analysis is used to assure that the measures of constituents' trust are reliable. Then a structural model of constituents' trust is analyzed using LISREL. The findings indicate that constituents' trust is directly influenced by personal contact with the representative and trust in the political system, and indirectly influenced by perceptions of waste in government, economic evaluations, and socioeconomic status operating through system trust.