2.3.2. Trust

Two items gauged resident trust based on the conceptualization of trust as a willingness to accept vulnerability [27,54]. The residents first marked the extent to which they "trusted [their] local water utility to provide drinking water to [their] home that is safe to drink." We then asked their degree of comfort "with [their] local water utility controlling the quality of water delivered to [their] home." This second item measured vulnerability as a dimension of trust [32].

To ensure the trust variable would capture variability in the sample, we pre-tested the versions of the two indicators on Virginia residents using Amazon Turk (N = 111) [55]. We then conducted an in-person pilot study (*n* = 20) in our study area. Based on this pretesting we selected a 9-point scale for both trust items from 1 = *Do not trust at all*/*Not comfortable at all* to 9 = *Completely trust*/*Completely comfortable*.
