Trust in Symbolic Interactionist Research and in Phenomenological Investigation

We will show some interpretations of trust from two perspectives: symbolic interactionist research and phenomenological qualitative research. Trust could be interpreted in many ways. Generally, the cognitive and “rational” approach prevails in researching trust in social sciences. The everyday life connotation of trust that is created by chance or in unpredictable situations because of unknown and unpredictable conditions could be treated by such research as “irrational”; however, we are interested in those meanings of trust and their research in this paper. The symbolic interactionist perspective will help us to see how the subjective interpretation and situational features influence the creation of trust or distrust. We will analyze trust as an interactive phenomenon. The phenomenological approach could show us the essential features of trust and also its embeddedness in the lifeworld of participants. We will see how the lifeworld is maintained or refused, how routine activities are the basis of trust, and how existential security is created.