Museums and Public Trust in Democratic Societies

This article synthesises the key findings of all the available international studies on public trust and museums. These studies demonstrate that museums and museum curators continue to consistently rank as amongst the most highly trusted sources of information in democratic societies such as in the UK, Australia, Canada, and US. The article identifies a set of ‘museum trust attributes’ and explores the reasoning which underpins these high levels of public trust. I argue that when museums are perceived to contravene these trust attributes, it leads to public controversy and risks damaging their trusted status. While acknowledging these ‘museum trust attributes’, it is important to recognise there have been significant debates and critiques within the museum field (and beyond) about some of these attributes, especially ideas of ‘neutrality’ and ‘impartiality’. Equally, in recent years there have been various highly public instances of challenges to museums, for example around the ethics of their sponsorship, the provenance of some of their collections, and the historic marginalisation experienced by certain groups in terms of the histories and cultures that some museums represent. This leads me to ask how public museums can best use their trusted position for the benefit of democratic societies, especially in a context of disinformation and a general decline in public trust in institutions overall.