Lead researcher
Lead researcher
Prof. Lisa van der Werff
trustLAB, established in 2021, is one of the largest research groups on trust in Europe – with over 30 researchers, including 11 DCU faculty, research students and international members. trustLAB is focused on developing a multidisciplinary understanding of trust processes that supports positive work relationships across a variety of contexts. Prof. van der Werff is the President of FINT, First International Network on Trust, an international network of approximately 800 scholars studying trust within and between organisations. trustLAB has strong links with ECIU (European Consortium of Innovative Universities) member University of Twente as well as the University of Glasgow, Georgia State University and University of Basel.
Research Themes
- Active trust management. Research and training development regarding strategies for developing and protecting trust, interpersonal relationships, and relationships between organisations and their employees. We focus on how to manage trust through important workplace transitions, organisational crisis, change or failure and in relationships and groups where people have different values, professions or demographic characteristics
- Trust between people and technology. Research on the development of trust between people and disruptive technologies and how features of technology influence those trusting decisions. Our work in this space also includes a focus on data privacy and includes technologies such as cloud computing, social media, virtual reality and artificial intelligence
- Drivers of trust and distrust. Research on factors influencing trust and distrust and the processes underlying its development. We explore the interaction of common cognitive antecedents of trust as well as the role of motivation, emotion and context in our understanding of how trust and distrust change over time
- Digitalization of work. Research on how digitalization and the use of technology impacts relationships between people, and between people and organisations. We research the transforming trust dynamics in professions, as reliance shifts from traditional expertise to digital systems, algorithms and data driven decision-making, and we research members of vulnerable communities and those experiencing a datafication of work
