About

PODtrust – The Potential of Digital: Optimising Trustworthy Digital Contact is an ambitious international research project that explores how digital communication between political elites and citizens affects political trust. At a time when democratic societies are facing declining trust and increasing polarization, this project investigates whether digital tools – such as email, social media, chatbots, AI-generated messages, and influencers – can be designed to foster more inclusive and trustworthy political relationships.

Through innovative experimental and qualitative research in Canada, France, Poland, and the UK, the project examines how citizens and political elites interact via digital media and Focus also on the modes of various modes of political contact with marginalised communitie such as for example: women, ethnic minorities, and diaspora populations. PODtrust brings together political science, communication, and psychology to build a new, empirically grounded theory of political trust in the digital age. By combining cross-national analysis with a focus on marginalized voices, the project not only advances scholarly understanding but also informs democratic innovation. Its findings will support policymakers, civil society, and digital practitioners in crafting more meaningful, trustworthy connections between citizens and those who represent them.