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The Extending Empathy Project

Colloquium Series for 2023-2024

Trust 101: Who to Let in, Who to Keep out 

Do you allow just anyone to enter your home? Do you reveal your suffering to anyone who will listen? Do you ever find yourself holding back from full self-expression because you do not trust your current social context? Do you accept friend requests from everyone who asks to be your friend on Facebook? Do you believe most things you read on Twitter and other social media? Do you act as if your vote is counted properly in local, state, and federal elections?  

Trust permeates our daily lives, from one-on-one interactions to social media, to looking for help, to casting a ballot in an election. How do we decide who or what to trust? Is there a right or wrong way to trust? Are some people, social media sites, and forms of government more trustable than others? Why? 

The Extending Empathy Project is pleased to collaborate with The American Democracy Project to bring to you this series of colloquia geared toward examining just how thoroughly trust determines the course of our lives. Each talk will focus on how trust works at a different levels of engagement, beginning with one-one-one interaction, then the media, then social media such as Twitter, and then, finally, democracy itself.  

All of these presentations will take place on zoom and are free to the public.

All sessions have the same registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIodu6vqj4jG9QpTDx3jZGZUaw-scVZZQiN

Trust and the Unseen Burden of Authenticity 
Dr. Vanessa Hintz 
School of Education and Human Services 
Carroll University 
Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

Trust After Twitter 
Dr. Nathan Carpenter 
College of Journalism and Communications 
University of Florida 
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

Misplaced Trust: What Role Does Trust Have in Conspiratorial Thinking?
Anna George1, M.S., & Dr. Eric Wesselmann2
Oxford Internet Institute1 Illinois State University2
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

Trust and Media in a Post-Truth Era 
Dr. Steve Hunt
School of Communications 
Illinois State University 
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

Enhancing Trust by Dismantling Stigma: An Ecological Perspective 
Dr. Daniel Lannin
Department of Psychology 
Illinois State University 
Wednesday, April 17th, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

“Why Can’t I Trust You?” The Neuroscience and Psychology of Trust
Dr. J. Scott Jordan
Department of Psychology 
Illinois State University 
Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

Confronting America’s Legitimacy Crisis: (Dis)Trust, Precarity, and the Necessity of Democratic Reforms
Dr. Byron Craig & Dr. Steve Rahko
School of Communications 
Illinois State University 
Wednesday, June 19th, 2024 
4:00-5:30 pm CST 

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