About

Karen S. Cook is the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, where she is also a founding and former Director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS). Her research focuses on social interaction, social networks, social exchange, and trust. She has contributed significantly to the field through her editing of several books in the Russell Sage Foundation Trust Series and her co-authorship of notable works such as 'Cooperation without Trust?' and her co-editing of 'Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology.' Cook's scholarly work explores the mechanisms of trust and social capital within various social contexts, including online environments and economic organizations. She has been recognized for her contributions by election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and has received awards such as the ASA Social Psychology Section Cooley Mead Award for Career Contributions to Social Psychology. Her leadership roles include serving as the current and founding director of IRiSS and holding a position on the Board of Trustees for the Russell Sage Foundation.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Social Science
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Computer Science
• Public relations
• Knowledge management
• Economics
• Economic system
• Social psychology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Improving the retention rate in the introductory programming courses at Georgia Southwestern State University

  CSU ePress (Columbus State University) · 2026-01-21

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Post COVID, the incoming students in CS and IT programs have seen a significant increase in the fail, withdrawal rate. Though some of it is associated with the lack of classes and changes in modalities during COVID and the initial years that followed, most of it is due to the lack of proper foundation after high school and before introducing the programming courses. In this paper we identify the major reasons for the low retention rate and how it can be mitigated by introducing a logic course in the curriculum.

  Publisher

• Trust and distrust in institutions

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-03-13 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  This chapter critically examines the nuanced relationship between trust, distrust, and institutions, and their impact on contemporary societies. It explores public institutions’ dual role in fostering trust and functioning as its foundation, addressing the complexity of these entities as both targets and sources of trust. The chapter delves into the nature of trust, discussing its formation, driving factors, and the essential role of trustworthiness, while cautioning against the dangers of misplaced trust. It also differentiates between distrust and low trust, highlighting distrust's unique characteristics, origins, and consequences, especially in public governance contexts. The analysis extends to considering institutions as trustors and the potential distinction between trust and confidence in the public sector. The chapter concludes by identifying future research directions, emphasising the need to differentiate between low trust and distrust, explore institutions’ role as trustors, and clarify the distinction between trust and confidence. This comprehensive investigation aims to advance the understanding of trust dynamics in institutional contexts and their broader societal implications.

  PublisherDOI

• A call for transdisciplinary trust research in the artificial intelligence era

  Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · 2025-07-18 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Trust is a cornerstone and enabler of human civilization, determining the very nature of how people interact with each other. The swift integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into daily life poses grand societal challenges and necessitates a reevaluation of trust. Our bibliometric literature review calls for scientists and stakeholders to cross traditional academic boundaries to address emerging and evolving societal challenges arising from AI. We propose a transdisciplinary research framework to understand and bolster trust in AI and address grand challenges in domains as diverse and urgent as misinformation, discrimination, and warfare.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social Exchange

  Handbooks of sociology and social research · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• The Sociology of Trust

  2024-01-12 · 2 citations

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  This chapter surveys sociological approaches to trust, defining trust as a willingness to accept vulnerability to another actor on the expectation that this vulnerability will not be exploited. It reviews two dominant traditions: generalized trust, which concerns broad confidence in unfamiliar others and is linked to socialization, self-reinforcement, and biological factors; and particularized trust, which concerns familiar actors and specific domains and is shaped by prior interaction, future dependence, and network embeddedness. The authors argue that this dichotomy is too narrow and propose a more precise framework built around three independent “radiuses” of trust: the trustor, the trustee, and the trust domain. This multidimensional model highlights neglected forms such as categorical trust and clarifies how trust varies across social settings. The chapter concludes by outlining eight priorities for future research, including better measurement, links between trust forms, affective and moral foundations, trust outcomes, digital trust, and the distinct study of trustworthiness.

  PublisherDOI

• A Randomized Trial to Address Food Insecurity and Promote Smoking Cessation Among Low-Income Adults

  Journal of Primary Care & Community Health · 2024-01-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Many low-income adults who smoke also have unmet social needs, such as food insecurity, which can serve as a barrier to smoking cessation. We developed a novel intervention to jointly address smoking cessation and food insecurity and assessed its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes. We enrolled participants who screened for food insecurity, reported smoking daily, and were ready to quit. All participants received 3 months of resources navigation from a community health worker through monthly telephone calls for referrals and check-ins for smoking cessation and food access resources. Participants randomized to the intervention group received an economic intervention equivalent to the cost of 1 week of groceries/month for 3 months. We randomized 55 participants who were smoking on average 13 cigarettes/day. The trial was feasible and acceptable based on 3-month retention rates (80%) and end-of-study qualitative feedback (91% would recommend the study to others). At 3 months, participants in the intervention versus control group reported a longer length of abstinence from smoking and had a higher proportion of serious quit attempts. Results from this pilot study suggest the importance of attending to social needs, particularly food insecurity, as a strategy to promote smoking cessation among low-income adults who smoke.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Regulating During Crisis: A Qualitative Comparative Case Study of Nursing Regulatory Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Journal of Nursing Regulation · 2023-04-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Abductive Mixed-methods Approach to Studying Generalized Exchange in a Start-up Accelerator

  2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  book
  PublisherDOI

• Occupational Disappointment and Emergency Nurses: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

  Canadian Journal of Emergency Nursing · 2022-07-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background: Occupational disappointment is a novel concept in emergency nursing. It is a feeling of disheartenment with career choice. It results from prevalent, unaddressed verbal abuse in the emergency department directed towards nurses from patients and/or their visitors. Occupational disappointment is conceptually different from burnout and compassion fatigue. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to acknowledge this phenomenon and understand its implications while considering strategies to mitigate it.
 Method: A qualitative descriptive methodology was used in this study. Nurses were interviewed to explore the question: How do emergency department nurses experience occupational disappointment as a result of verbal abuse?
 Results: Three major themes with several subthemes were identified: (1) nurses’ experiences of occupational disappointment with sub-themes of powerlessness and normalizing; (2) nurses’ responses to occupational disappointment with sub-themes of changes in nursing practice, retention, and nurses’ mental health; (3) nurses’ concerns regarding occupational disappointment with sub-themes of nursing and organizational leadership.
 Discussion: Policies addressing verbal abuse would help guide nurses when managing this violence. Failure of nurse leaders to implement such measures contributes to nurses’ occupational disappointment, consequently affecting nurses’ practice, mental health, and retention. While these implications are not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this phenomenon. The magnitude of verbal abuse that emergency nurses currently face has increased exponentially; a renewed urgency for strategic action is necessary.
 Conclusion: Occupational disappointment is a direct result of verbal abuse and an indirect result of organizational failures to support nurses and empower them to mitigate this abuse.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Food as Medicine Clinic: Early Results and Lessons Learned

  Cureus · 2022-11-26 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Hospital-based food pantries are commonly used to address food insecurity. However, few studies have examined the impact of these food pantries on patients with chronic health conditions. In this study, we sought to assess the effect of a hospital-based food pantry clinic on self-reported dietary changes, health outcomes, and resource utilization. METHODS: This study included food insecure participants with suboptimally controlled congestive heart failure, hypertension, or diabetes who visited a Food as Medicine (FAM) clinic at an academic healthcare system between October 2018 and November 2019. The clinic provided a three-day supply of food for participants and their families up to two times per month for up to 12 months. Baseline, three-month, and six-month surveys were used to assess dietary behaviors, and electronic health record (EHR) data were used to assess health outcomes and utilization. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to explore variables associated with FAM clinic use. RESULTS: At three months, participants self-reported improved dietary behaviors, including increased consumption of fruits and vegetables as snacks and an increased variety of fruits and vegetables consumed. There were no statistically significant changes in clinical or healthcare utilization measures, despite small absolute improvements in systolic blood pressure (SBP), hospitalizations, and emergency department (ED) visits. There was a weak association between FAM clinic visit frequency and changes in dietary behaviors. CONCLUSION: Among patients with chronic diseases, the use of the FAM clinic was associated with improved self-reported dietary behaviors and a nonsignificant improvement in health outcomes and resource utilization.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Trusting Strangers in the Sharing Economy

  NSF · $299k · 2013–2017

• Collaborative Research: Exchange Network Transition: Uncertainty, Risk and Shifts in Mode of Transition

  NSF · $104k · 2006–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Kevin Chagin

  MetroHealth

  83 shared

• J Misák

  Health Innovations (United States)

  82 shared

• David L. Hu

  Integra (United States)

  81 shared

• Shari Bolen

  Case Western Reserve University

  81 shared

• Douglas D. Gunzler

  Case Western Reserve University

  81 shared

• Alissa C. Glenn

  Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

  81 shared

• Douglas Einstadter

  MetroHealth

  81 shared

• Ellen McLaughlin

  Misericordia University

  81 shared

Labs

• Karen Cook LabPI

Education

• PhD, Sociology

  Stanford University

  1973

Awards & honors

• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996)
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2007)
• ASA Social Psychology Section Cooley Mead Award for Career C…
• Elected to the American Philosophical Society (2018)
• Best Extended Abstract Paper Award (2012)