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As the majority of research is now released via infographic, The Data Museum is currently on long-term hiatus. These archives will be maintained on the Wilkening Consulting website for the foreseeable future.

For the latest research findings, please visit the Data Stories section of the Wilkening Consulting website.

Trust and Museums

4/9/2018

 
Trust. It seems trust in institutions is in short supply nowadays. At least, that's the conventional wisdom. But is it true?

The Pew Research Center regularly shares data on how much Americans trust various institutions, and the real picture is  murky. In spring 2016, they found high levels of trust for the military and scientists, but not for the news media, business leaders, or elected officials. Additionally, only half of Americans trust most or all of their neighbors (my review of The Vanishing Neighbor may shed some light on this).

But what about museums?

This winter, AASLH asked me to find out by updating the trust findings from The Presence of the Past. Since I was sampling for trust in history museums, I decided a contextual knowledge against peers would be helpful; I also sampled trust in "museums" and in "science museums and centers." The results were heartening.
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But trust is a fragile thing. Indeed, that 2016 data from Pew feels rather like the distant past, as politically and socially so much has changed since then. Content presented by museums can be contentious (think climate change, Confederate monuments that "belong in a museum," long-term overt and systemic racism, cultural appropriation, and more). Should we take a position on critical issues of our day, especially when presenting "just the facts" neutrally is also a position that may not be tenable? What about multiple viewpoints? All of them? Even the abhorrent ones? Or do we choose? What does that mean for trust?​

These questions are increasingly on my mind, and I don't have answers. But benchmarking museum audiences, and the broader American public, is crucial so that we know what to expect from visitors and the public when we make individual interpretive decisions. This is work for which there is a crying need, so that museums can continue to maintain high levels of trust going forward.

​More to come.
Veronique Cote link
9/25/2018 01:18:50 pm

Who were the people surveyed? Were they museum users or general public? What cities and states? Urban or rural? California or Bible belt?

I absolutely like this frame of reflection: "Should we take a position on critical issues of our day, especially when presenting "just the facts" neutrally is also a position that may not be tenable? What about multiple viewpoints? All of them? Even the abhorrent ones? Or do we choose? What does that mean for trust?​"

It directly connects to subjects we need to discuss and we hear about all the time: curatorial voice, museum authority, inclusion and relevance. But trust or distrust are more universal experiences, even animals know the feeling. It's transcultural, unisex, intergenerational, etc.

Susie Wilkening link
9/25/2018 08:34:26 pm

Hi Veronique - The people surveyed were the general public/broader population, and they came from all over the United States.

Additionally, I'm in the field on behalf of a client, with work touching on some of the other questions you highlighted.

Thanks for the question and comments!

Heather
10/23/2019 08:42:03 am

Have you published this data somewhere? I am writing a research paper about the public's trust in informal STEM institutions and would like to cite this data.

Susie Wilkening link
10/23/2019 11:11:03 am

Hi Heather - Great question! I mostly publish data via this website. But here's citation info:

Source: Wilkening Consulting, broader population sampling via Google Consumer Surveys, March 2018, n = 1054

Yes, absolutely = 37%
Yes, somewhat = 40%
No, not really = 10%
No, absolutely not = 13%

Henri link
1/1/2021 02:57:19 pm

Nice bblog thanks for posting


Comments are closed.

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