Modelling Trust

Modelling Trust launches

Sat, 31 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Modelling Trust, a new research network based in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, launched in October 2026 with funding from the Glasgow Changing Futures Collaborative Seed Fund.

Over the coming year the network will run three thematic workshops, a public talk series and a conference in Glasgow, all asking one question: can modelling methods from the social sciences help us understand when trust in experts is warranted, and how broken trust can be rebuilt?

About the project

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The problem

When is it rational to trust an expert’s testimony? How far should trust in an expert’s judgement in one domain carry over to another? What makes someone trustworthy rather than merely confident, and how can trust, once broken, be rebuilt? These questions matter for public health, for science policy and for democratic life, and philosophers working on the epistemology of trust have made real progress on them.

But the field’s standard tool is the method of cases. A theorist consults their own intuitions about an imagined scenario and builds a general theory on the result. Intuitions about such cases vary with culture, gender, age and background, they shift with framing, and they can carry prejudice. The upshot is a growing number of rival theories and little convergence between them.

Accessibility

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We want everyone who’s interested to be able to take part.

Events are hybrid wherever possible, so you can join from home.
Major events have live captioning or BSL interpretation, and talk recordings are shared openly.
A small fund helps early-career researchers and PGRs with UK travel and caring costs.
Venues are chosen with step-free access in mind.

If you need an adjustment to take part, or anything on this site isn’t accessible to you, please contact us and we’ll do what we can.

Join the network

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We’re building a network of researchers who work on trust, expertise and models, in philosophy and beyond. Membership is informal and costs nothing.

Mailing list

For news of workshops, talks and calls for papers, email us and ask to be added to the mailing list.

Working with us

If you work on trust or expertise, in any discipline, and would like to speak, collaborate or develop a joint project, please get in touch. We’re especially keen to hear from economists, psychologists, political scientists, computer scientists and health researchers, and from early-career researchers and PGRs.

People

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Co-leads

The three co-leads share the project equally, and each leads one of the thematic workshops.

J. Adam Carter

Professor of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and a Director of COGITO Epistemology Research Centre. Works in social epistemology and the epistemology of trust, autonomy and testimony, and is the author of A Telic Theory of Trust (Oxford University Press, 2024). Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded KNOW-HOW project.

Nicolas Côté

Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Works across normative ethics, the philosophy of economics and political theory, and brings formal modelling into philosophical research. Leads the project’s modelling methodology.

Programme 2026–27

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Dates, speakers and registration details will appear here as they’re confirmed. To hear about them first, join the mailing list.

Thematic workshops

Each workshop is led by one of the co-leads and pairs invited speakers with researchers and PGRs in Glasgow. All three are planned for the first half of 2027.

Modelling methods in epistemology

Led by Nicolas Côté. What can idealised models tell us about rational trust, and what can’t they? This workshop looks at modelling, simulation and robustness analysis as tools for philosophy, and at what epistemology can learn from how economists and other social scientists use models.

Research

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The trust-transport model

The project starts from a formal model of how trust should move between domains: how a rational agent ought to revise trust in an expert in one field given gains or losses of trust in that expert elsewhere. The model rests on four weak requirements on rational trust. It bears on epistemic trespassing, on the difference between virtuous trust and either gullibility or excessive scepticism, and on how broken trust can be rebuilt by starting again in a nearby, lower-stakes domain. It also identifies a new failure mode, reverse trespass.