Karen Cook

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

Selected publications

• Trust in Social Relations

  Annual Review of Sociology · 2021 · 329 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Trust is key to understanding the dynamics of social relations, to the extent that it is often viewed as the glue that holds society together. We review the mounting sociological literature to help answer what trust is and where it comes from. To this end, we identify two research streams—on particularized trust and generalized trust, respectively—and propose an integrative framework that bridges these lines of research while also enhancing conceptual precision. This framework provides the sprin…

  PublisherDOI

• An Interaction Ritual Theory of Social Resource Exchange: Evidence from a Silicon Valley Accelerator

  Administrative Science Quarterly · 2020 · 69 citations

  Recent research on start-up accelerators has drawn attention to the central importance of social resource exchange among peers for entrepreneurial success. But such peer relationships contain both cooperative and competitive elements, making accelerators a prime example of a mixed-motive context in which successful generalized exchange—unilateral giving without expectations of direct reciprocity—is not a given. In our ethnographic study of a Silicon Valley accelerator, we sought to explore how g…

  PublisherDOI

• Trust: Perspectives in Sociology

  2020-06-08 · 26 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In this chapter, we explore a more sociological perspective on trust and why trust matters in society. In much of the research on trust the emphasis is on psychological approaches in which trust is viewed fundamentally as a characteristic of an individual’s willingness to accept vulnerability or to take risks on others. Thus, we begin by defining trust – an exercise not without contention. We then describe recent characterizations of trust in the social science literature as an element of social…

  PublisherDOI

• Exchange and the Creation of Trust and Solidarity across Cultures

  Social Psychology Quarterly · 2022-09-06 · 14 citations

  article

  The emergence of trust and solidarity is arguably foundational for economic development and social order. Yet many studies, often survey-based, document large disparities in general trust and social cohesion between countries. Can mutual trust and solidarity arise between people even in areas of low general trust, or do national cultural contexts block such connections? We report an experimental investigation of the dynamic between national environments and local social interactions, specificall…

  PublisherDOI

• Impression management attenuates the effect of ability on trust in economic exchange

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022-07-22 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Are competent actors still trusted when they promote themselves? The answer to this question could have far-reaching implications for understanding trust production in a variety of economic exchange settings in which ability and impression management play vital roles, from succeeding in one’s job to excelling in the sales of goods and services. Much social science research assumes an unconditional positive impact of an actor’s ability on the trust placed in that actor: in other words, competence…

  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)

Similar researchers at Stanford University

• Ann Hsingh-117
• Jon A. Krosnickh-95
• Robert Weisbergh-77