Theory of Interpretive and Organizational Trust

Abstract

Religious institutions operate as centers of interpretive authority, capable of mobilizing millions of individuals and vast economic resources. However, structural divergence occurs when systems transition from generating high public trust and societal benefit into extractive, coercive entities prone to organizational decay. This paper introduces the Theory of Interpretive and Organizational Trust, a Persistence Science framework that models religious institutions through four invariant behavioral laws: Atomization, Alignment, Asymmetry, and Incarnation. By quantifying these dynamics into a Coercion Index (CI) and a Religious Trust Score (RT), the framework establishes a rigorous, non-doctrinal approach to evaluating system persistence, legitimacy, and decay. Within Persistence Science, religious institutions are treated as information-processing structures whose long-term viability depends upon Information Control, Persistence Capacity, and the conversion of information into measurable public benefit. The framework proposes that informational distortion increases coercive decay and reduces persistence, whereas trust-enhancing structures improve Information Control, increase Persistence Capacity, and strengthen long-term organizational persistence. The framework is further illustrated through coding of twenty historical and contemporary institutional cases to demonstrate its explanatory and diagnostic capacity. The theory provides a falsifiable and comparative framework for evaluating organizational trust in religious systems.