We turn now to a different part of the literature on trust which on an initial reading seems somewhat unrelated to the TCC model in that it does not make an explicit distinction between trust and confidence. A good deal of research shows that trust is related to the perception and acceptance of risk (e.g. Bord and O‘Connor, 1992;

Freudenburg, 1993; Siegrist, 1999) and it is usually assumed that trust influences perceptions of risk which in turn influence acceptability. Broadly, if an organisation or authority is trusted then perceptions of risk arising from their activities will be lower and thus the public will be more accepting of their activities. Numerous studies show correlations between trust, risk perception and acceptance but this merely demonstrates that the three constructs are linked; it does not indicate how they are linked.
Eiser, Miles & Frewer (2002) and Poortinga and Pidgeon (2005) both address this issue and define two alternative models of the relationship between trust, risk perception and acceptance. The model suggesting that trust leads to lowered risk perception which leads to acceptance is referred to as the ̳causal chain‘ account of trust and is illustrated in figure 2.