Measuring Trust in Intelligence Services: A Conceptual Framework and Exploratory Study

Abstract

In democratic societies, trust in public institutions, includingintelligence services, is crucial. A framework is presented inthis paper to examine trust in Spain’s intelligence agency,based on a survey of 2,888 Spanish university students. Sixdimensions were found to influence trust. High trust was asso-ciated with the perceived effectiveness of the agency at addres-sing threats against the state and adherence to legal standards.Additionally, trust was linked to the perception that the intelli-gence services were aware of those threats and could effectivelycounter them. The study contributes to the line of research oncitizens’ trust in intelligence services