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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

What makes people trust AI? Find out in our new paper. One curious finding: in Japan, people who think AI may replace their job actually trust AI more. doi.org/10.1007/s001... trusttracker.org/publications...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In both the UK and Japan, people on the political right were more likely to support protecting controversial or offensive research, while those on the left saw social sensitivity and avoiding potential harm as more important. (3/4)

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Most people in our surveys supported academic freedom in principle, but divisions emerge over offensive research, controversial findings, or collaboration with abusive regimes. In both the UK and Japan, ideology strongly predicts where people draw the line. (2/4)

Four graphs showing perceptions of academic freedom.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

"If Nigel Farage was watching this interview, what would you say to him?" In a Japanese TV exclusive, TBS News Dig asks the big questions of Count Binface.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Do elections build trust simply by happening? In Japan’s local elections, trust rose where governor races accompanied council elections, especially among lower-income/less-educated citizens. Efficacy didn’t. doi.org/10.1080/1745... trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?... @martinejnar.bsky.social

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

It hasn’t been a great week for the public image of UK universities. But our surveys suggest uni lecturers were already struggling for public sympathy: only 36% support them striking. doi.org/10.1177/0143... trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?... @tjscotto.bsky.social @jasonreifler.bsky.social

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Gorgeous night for a SUP in Amsterdam.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Today I take over the reins as Director of the Computational Social Science programme at the University of Amsterdam. Our students use computational methods to understand and solve complex societal problems. Huge thanks to Eelke Heemskerk, and to our brilliant team, students and partners!

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Top work by our Computational Social Science students at @UvA_Amsterdam! The Amsterdam Cool Map, built by our students and supervised by Rens Wilderom, is now live and featured in @at5.nl, @ad.nl, @rtl.nl and @volkskrant.nl. www.koeltekaartamsterdam.nl

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

My colleagues and I asked whether universities should do research that some find offensive. We found fascinating age, gender, education and left-right political differences: trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

New in PLOS ONE: ethnic differences in NHS trust and satisfaction in England. Gaps are clearest in care, ethics & discrimination. With Martin Ejnar Hansen, Yosuke Sunahara, @tjscotto.bsky.social , @jasonreifler.bsky.social , Han Dorussen & Dorothy Yen. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Would you trust AI in public administration? Martin Ejnar Hansen, Yosuke Sunahara and I find out in our new article in the International Journal of Public Administration @ijpa2022.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0190... trusttracker.org

A small white guidance robot standing in a Japanese public-service building beside a sign explaining that a robot customer guidance experiment is underway.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Trust in the BBC is taking a hammering. In my ABC interview with Suzanne Hill, I explain that while there are things the BBC can fix, there are other things out of their control. You can hear the full interview here: trusttracker.org/media_main.p...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Honoured to see our UK-Japan TrustTracker.org research cited in the House of Lords report "Is working from home working?" committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... The inequalities in who can work from home matter just as much as productivity debates.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

This is an interesting thought, but the two fill different purposes. Our YouGov research based on over 11,000 people finds that trust levels in the BBC are driven by voting patterns in a way that trust in newspapers is not. There's no Con/Lab difference in trust in papers, but there is in the BBC.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Similar, but not as pronounced. Here's trust in traditional news, such as newspapers. No Lab/Con divide at all. We ran the same surveys in Japan, swapping out BBC with NHK. No partisan differences at all. Both within the UK, and compared to other public service broadcasters, the BBC has a problem.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

They also need to overcome the partisan gulf of trust facing them, revealed in our surveys of over 11,000 people. www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The BBC really is facing some trust issues, as our surveys of over 11,000 people reveal. www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The BBC once again finds itself making news, rather than breaking news. As my colleagues and I find, based on surveying over 11,000 people, one part of British society trusts the BBC a lot more than another. There's a clear partisan and left-right divide in trust for the BBC.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Would you trust politicians to use AI to help them with their work? What about a robot making decisions for them? My colleagues Martin Ejnar Hansen, Yosuke Sunahara and I find out in Parliamentary Affairs! doi.org/10.1093/pa/g... @hansardsociety.bsky.social @ukparliament.parliament.uk

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

To find our more, visit our project website, TrustTracker.org

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Our new paper on who trusts the BBC vs NHK finds that while UK Conservatives really don't trust the BBC, there is no partisan divide in trust for NHK in Japan. doi.org/10.1515/comm... #MediaTrust #BBC #NHK #UK #Japan

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Seaweed is good for you, and good for the environment, as my students and Samuel L. Jackson explain in this piece for The Conversation. theconversation.com/why-are-west...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Seaweed is good for your health, and great for the environment. But westerners hardly eat it. My fantastic students find out why in their new publication in Food Quality and Preference! doi.org/10.1016/j.fo...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Very honoured to present our work comparing Japan and the UK to the House of Lords Select Committee on Home-Based Working. This is a brief clip; the full session is available at t.co/MdkU4njbuB

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Bike ride home from Scouts in Amsterdam.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

We know that ChatGPT is good at making Ghibli images, but it can also turn you into a Beano character! #MakeMeAMenace

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #6. Trust and health data. doi.org/10.12968/bjh...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #5. Trust and human poo. doi.org/10.1016/j.wm...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #4. Trust and waiting for health-care. doi.org/10.1016/j.pu...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #3. Trust, doctors, nurses and strikes. doi.org/10.1111/nin....

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #2. Trust, religion and vaccination: The role of religion and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in England. doi.org/10.1016/j.va...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Highlighting some of our trust research #1. Trust, the police and gender: London, you have a problem with women. doi.org/10.1080/1043...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Excited to launch "A taste for deprivation" in Geoforum by myself and Seiki Tanaka. We find a strong link between fish and chips and the Brexit vote. I'd like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the whole editorial board of Geoforum for their commitment to rigorous research. doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Contour lines at Christmas. Been a while. Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

There's a strong link between Brexit and: fish and chip shops; high blood pressure; obesity; epilepsy; arthritis; heart disease; COPD; diabetes; kidney disease; stroke; and asthma. More Japanese restaurants means the opposite. Early results, but I will try to publish!

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 29/03/2024

Waiting times for healthcare in the UK are at an all time high. Does this affect people's trust in the NHS? Our survey says: no. Even controlling for waiting times in A&E or referral to cancer specialists, people still trust the NHS. Unless they're rightwing or Conservative: doi.org/10.1016/j.pu...

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 29/03/2024

People in England are hugely supportive of strikes by nurses and junior doctors. But support varies: - non-Conservative - left-leaning - trusting people are more likely to support strikes. See the new piece in Nursing Inquiry by m'colleague Martin Ejnar Hansen and I: doi.org/10.1111/nin....

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

It would have been me mam's 75th birthday today, so here's one of the last photos I took of her in 2005, with me dad being a daft 'apeth (which he was: like father, like son). Just noticed you can see Black Combe reflected in the back kitchen window. Ooh, it were cold up there.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 09/11/2023

The UK Home Secretary has recently made some inflammatory comments regarding the police. My colleagues and I have spent the last 16 months looking at how much the public trust the police and the government. Bottom line: they trust the police more. Source: YouGov, N= 9013.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

Super proud of our Computational Social Science students at the University of Amsterdam today. These are first year undergrads, just two months into the programme, working on 16 different environment-related projects with partners in the city. They are tomorrow's change-makers!

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 15/10/2023

A cold, wet and windy Amsterdam Marathon today! Super proud of David and Lizzy for winning their second Amsterdam medals!

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Much ink has been spilled lately in whether people trust UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. While trust levels are low, it's worth noting that they are still mostly north of his predecessors. Weighted YouGov data, N=8105

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 30/07/2023

Apparently, cargo-bike mums are 'career-focused mothers who are assertive and self-confident', while cargo-bike dads are 'portrayed as "soft" yet also emancipated' (Boterman 2020). In possibly related news, we just bought a cargo bike.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 07/07/2023

One of those nights when the Sluishuis and the Enneüs Heermabrug serve up an IJburg sunset treat.

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Steve Pickering @stevepickering.bsky.social · 02/07/2023

So I'm still working on this, but the more Citroën cars in your area, the more disease. On the flip side, more Mercedes means fewer incidences of disease. The scatters here are just correlations, but the models hold up very well...

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