In a national energy study, taking part built trust more than messaging did

Joining a public exercise on heat-transition policy modestly increased trust, while some value-based government messages reduced it.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

The study tested how government communication affects trust during the energy transition. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of six messages: an environmental, financial or stability message presented by either local or national government, or to a control group. Trust was measured before and after the exercise.

Across the analyses, the messages did not increase trust. The local-government stability message had the most consistent negative effect. By contrast, participation in the exercise itself produced a modest, consistent increase in trust, regardless of which message participants received. Responses differed according to participants’ existing levels of trust, but not according to demographic groups.

What the experiment found

The experiment included approximately 3,000 participants in a Participatory Value Evaluation on heat-transition policy. Value-based messages about environmental, financial or stability concerns failed to increase trust in government and in some cases reduced it. The local-stability message showed the most consistent negative effect.

Participation in the exercise itself produced a modest and robust increase in trust, independent of the message participants received. People’s responses varied strongly according to their existing trust profiles, while the study found no such differences across demographic groups.

Why participation matters

The findings suggest that involving people in decisions about the energy transition may strengthen trust more reliably than presenting policies through value-laden messages. They also indicate that messages designed to appeal to particular concerns can have unintended negative effects, especially among people with different starting levels of trust in government.

Evidence and caveats

This was a large-scale national experiment with random assignment to six messaging conditions or a control group. Researchers compared trust before and after the intervention and used additional analyses to examine differences between trust profiles and individual responses.

The abstract does not report the numerical size of the trust changes, how long any increase lasted, or how participants were recruited. It also does not establish whether the findings apply to other policy settings or forms of government communication beyond this heat-transition exercise.

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