Research Newsletter - Issue 70: Spotlight

Many of our members are based in DCU and affiliated with IIDB however, we also accept associate members from other research centres and universities across Ireland.

trustLAB Objectives

Our primary objective in establishing trustLAB was to create a forum for researchers interested in trust to share ideas, collaborate and provide peer feedback to help develop our understanding of how people develop trust in their relationships at work, when interacting with organisations and when using or considering the use of technology. We are focused on the development of research skills and capacity around the topic of trust and have fast established ourselves as an international centre for excellence in trust research.

Trust is well-established as the social glue that allows our communities, organizations and teams to function effectively. It allows us to interact with other parties (human and technology based) smoothly by decreasing the need for us to monitor and have full knowledge of the other party’s behaviour. As such, trust is an essential ingredient in behaviours such as learning, knowledge sharing and technology adoption. Importantly, trust also allows us to make meaningful and rewarding social connections with those around us and is vital to our well-being and ability to access support.

Research Focus and Collaboration

In trustLAB, our members study trust in a variety of contexts. Recent publication successes include a focus on the drivers of trust in artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies such as the Irish COVID-19 mobile application and the leadership behaviours that drive the trust of employees within organisations as well as members of the public interacting with public services and government leaders. Our ongoing work includes a focus on what organisations can do to protect employee trust in their employers amongst the increasing datafication of work and how organisation’s data privacy policies impact consumer trust.

We host a brown bag seminar series that takes place every 6 weeks. At each seminar, a member shares an early stage or ongoing research project for feedback and discussion with a focus on developing ideas for publication and funding applications. We have strong collaborative relationships with IIDB’s other applied research labs (workLAB, subculturesLAB, finLAB, and learningLAB) as well as a well-developed international network through our associations with FINT and the dotLAB network.

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