Governments around the world have—and will continue to—develop policy proposals to deal with various challenges–of which COVID-19 is only the most recent. However, the capacity of government will be constrained by low levels of trust in government.

This research memo explores levels of trust in different authorities and the potential efficacy of enlisting the support of trusted cue-gives to tackle policy problems. We argue that enlisting trusted cue-givers— based on evidence of public trust in their authority—has strong potential to secure support for policy reforms.