The distinct impacts of trustworthiness traits, trust, and distrust on public service coproduction: empirical evidence from citizen perspective in urban China

Coproduction is a core part of citizen–government interaction with citizens directly contributing time, effort, and other resources to enhance the quality and efficiency of public services. Trust is routinely treated as a pivotal precondition for coproduction with citizens who trust the government being more willing to collaborate and to bear costs associated with participation. However, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. This “trust–coproduction paradox” suggests that trust is not a universal facilitator of coproduction, but existing research has not sufficiently specified the mechanisms through which trust operates, nor the conditions under which it translates into coproduction. This thesis advances understanding of citizen–government interaction by showing that trust-building alone may not be sufficient to promote coproduction without supportive institutional contexts and citizen’s psychological resources. First, the thesis develops a precise, context-sensitive framework of trust-related concepts. It unpacks trustworthiness traits (competence, benevolence, and integrity) and perceived trustworthiness, while clearly distinguishing trust from distrust at both conceptual and operational levels. It examines whether these constructs differentially affect citizens’ coproduction willingness and behaviour, testing both direct effects and indirect effects of trustworthiness traits/perceived trustworthiness mediated by trust and distrust. Second, the thesis explores whether the effects of trust-related concepts are moderated by key social-psychological factors (public service motivation, self-efficacy, and identification with the city) and institutional features (salience of public services, process transparency, and ease of involvement) that are critical for coproduction. Finally, I examine these effects across four typical coproduction scenarios to assess the robustness and generalizability of findings. This thesis comprises a pilot study and two pre-registered sub-studies. The pilot study was conducted to refine the measurements and experimental manipulations. The questionnaire study shows that perceived trustworthiness positively affects citizens’ coproduction behaviours both by increasing trust and occasionally by decreasing distrust, while also exerting a significant direct positive effect. The survey experiment study manipulates trustworthiness traits (competence, benevolence, and integrity) to examine their effects on willingness to coproduce. Compared with the corresponding medium groups, high benevolence and high competence, rather than high integrity, significantly increase coproduction willingness, whereas low integrity is the most detrimental. Trust and distrust mediate these effects, with distrust occasionally increasing coproduction willingness but far weaklier than trust. In addition, these links between trust-related concepts and coproduction outcomes are moderated by social-psychological factors and institutional features, with effects varying by scenario and between willingness and behaviour. Service salience shows the most consistent pattern, with higher salience weakening the positive effects of trustworthiness traits and perceived trustworthiness on coproduction. External efficacy, city identification, and ease of involvement moderate these relationships more robustly across scenarios, but in opposite directions at the willingness and behavioural stages. By contrast, public service motivation and internal efficacy show highly unstable moderation. Transparency strengthens the overall positive effect of perceived trustworthiness on coproduction behaviour, but evidence is insufficient for the willingness stage. These findings demonstrate the value of distinguishing trust-related concepts and recognising the asymmetric drivers of trust and distrust. Building on this, the thesis addresses a key gap by showing that mixed evidence on the trust–coproduction link reflects both contextual contingency and, in part, construct conflation, measurement choices, and overlooked moderators. By specifying when and under what conditions trust-related factors do and do not promote citizen coproduction, the thesis provides a sharper explanation of why citizens engage in coproduction and strengthens theory and practice on institutional trust and participatory governance.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Sen Lin (21043208)

• Coproduction
• Trust
• Distrust
• Trustworthiness traits
• Perceived trustworthiness
• Public service motivation
• Self-efficacy
• Identification with the city
• Transparency
• Salience
• Ease of involvement
• Behavioural public administration

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-12-15

Identifier

10779/exe.32677470.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32677470