About

Dr. Roger C. Mayer is a Professor of Leadership in the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at NC State University. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, Baylor University, Singapore Management University, and The University of Akron, where he served four years as department chair. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. His research focuses on trust, employee decision making, attitudes, and effectiveness. Mayer is a leading scholar on trust in organizations, with his research published in numerous premiere scholarly journals and cited over 50,000 times across various fields. He co-authored a significant theory of trust with David Schoorman and James Davis, which has received notable recognition, including the Influential Article Award and the Best of the Second Decade Award from the Academy of Management Review. His recent interdisciplinary research explores trust in societal contexts such as government and law enforcement, supported by substantial grants. Mayer serves on multiple editorial boards and has been involved in interdisciplinary trust and decision-making research funded by grants through NC State’s Laboratory for Analytic Sciences. He has also worked as an organizational consultant across various industries and has been recognized for his teaching excellence, including winning the Outstanding Teacher Award at the University of Notre Dame. His research has been featured in outlets like Forbes, Psychology Today, NBC News, and Fast Company, and he is a frequent speaker on topics related to trust, leadership, negotiation, and influence.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Computer Security
• Psychotherapist
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Aesthetics
• Philosophy
• Environmental economics
• Risk analysis (engineering)
• Economics
• Management
• Public relations
• Law
• Knowledge management
• Social psychology
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Propensity to Trust Scale

  PsycTESTS Dataset · 2025-01-01

  datasetSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Police–public trust: Toward a more complete perspective

  CrimRxiv · 2025-11-21

  articleOpen access

  Most discussion of the police–public relationship focuses on the public’s lack of trust in police. Our research suggests that police trust in the public is another important factor in this relationship and that addressing trust concerns on both sides may improve it. We conducted two studies of police trust in the public. The results suggested that the more police trust the public, the more constructive risks they take in performing their jobs. Based on our results, we highlight the importance of reciprocity and attempting to simultaneously increase both police and public trust to improve their relationship. Measures developed for these studies may inform future research on police trust in the public and develop interventions to improve it.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Police–public trust: Toward a more complete perspective

  Behavioral Science & Policy · 2025-10-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Most discussion of the police–public relationship focuses on the public’s lack of trust in police. Our research suggests that police trust in the public is another important factor in this relationship and that addressing trust concerns on both sides may improve it. We conducted two studies of police trust in the public. The results suggested that the more police trust the public, the more constructive risks they take in performing their jobs. Based on our results, we highlight the importance of reciprocity and attempting to simultaneously increase both police and public trust to improve their relationship. Measures developed for these studies may inform future research on police trust in the public and develop interventions to improve it.

  PublisherDOI

• Towards a Psychometrically Sound and Culturally Invariant Measure of Propensity to Trust

  Journal of Business and Psychology · 2025-02-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 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

• Re-Envisioning the Ultimate Criterion in Org Science & Practice: Bringing Well-Being into Focus

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  For decades, performance has dominated as the “ultimate criterion” in fields such as management, organizational behavior, and industrial-organizational psychology -- yet this singular focus has left blind spots around broader organizational goals and worker well-being. Recent evidence suggests that equating “success” solely with productivity or financial outcomes risks overlooking employee health, sustainability, and social responsibilities. This panel symposium convenes leading scholars from diverse domains to re-examine the value of including well-being as a co-equal benchmark of organizational success. Panelists will share insights on how a holistic framework -- one that spans performance, well-being, and broader societal impact -- can transform not only theory but also day-to-day practice. From novel measurement approaches using biometric technologies to long-standing occupational health research, the session will highlight practical strategies for simultaneously fostering productivity and safeguarding employee well-being. Attendees will gain evidence-based perspectives on how to integrate these dimensions, ultimately sparking a more comprehensive, future-oriented conversation about what truly matters in contemporary organizational life and management practice.

  PublisherDOI

• Toward a scorecard (and roadmap) for trustworthy AI implementation in organizations

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-01-12

  book-chapterSenior author

  The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is interested in research considering the impact of AI on people. To that end they introduced four dimensions by which AI might be considered, which are fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency (FEAT). Rather than defining them, they encouraged researchers to define them as they thought appropriate. A widely used model of trustworthiness from Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman (1995) has three dimensions of trustworthiness: ability, benevolence, and integrity. We use both of these approaches to evaluate AI technology implementations in organizations, building a 3 x 4 matrix of exemplar questions coupling all combinations of pairs of descriptors from each of the two approaches. We posit that answering these questions provides a fruitful basis for evaluating the perceived trustworthiness of AI-based systems from the perspective of those affected by it.

  PublisherDOI

• Towards interdisciplinary scholarship in trust: the needs, some leads, and a seed

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-01-12 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The pace of change in the world is accelerating, causing problems that are increasing in magnitude and complexity - beyond the scope of a single scientific discipline. Trust is a key aspect of many of these problems. Many universities are encouraging researchers to address these “grand challenges” with interdisciplinary teams, but with little structure or support. This book is intended to help remedy this impediment for those doing or interested in doing trust research. Our intention is to highlight some diverse areas that are studying trust to scholars in other disciplines, with the hope of piquing interest in connecting with researchers more accessible to them. The book is written with minimal jargon to a general audience of college graduates across fields. As a number of chapters in the current volume utilized the trust model of Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman (1995), it is briefly summarized in this chapter for the reader’s convenience.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Trust in autonomous technology: the machine or its maker?

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-01-12 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Autonomous systems are created to perform a task so that a person does not have to. However, people differ in their willingness to trust and rely on such technology. To begin to understand what determines a person’s decision to trust an autonomous system (e.g., a self-driving car), it is first important to ask who or what they are deciding to trust. Is it the autonomous system itself, the maker of the autonomous system (e.g., Tesla), or both? This chapter grounds predictions about trust in autonomous systems in the theory of trust proposed by Mayer et al. (1995). Some early empirical work is summarized supporting the idea that trust in the system may be distinct from trust involving other people or companies. Future research on trust and autonomous systems should consider measuring trust for both referents.

  PublisherDOI

• Why does one trust? A 360-degree perspective on the role of position power in weighting trustworthiness factors

  Military Psychology · 2024-07-08

  articleOpen access

  = 85). Measures of trustworthiness and trust of a common military officer were obtained. Supervisors and subordinates differed in their relative weighting of trustworthiness factors (i.e. ability, benevolence, and integrity) when evaluating general and specific trust. Peers evidenced no difference in the relative weighting of trustworthiness factors. The relationship between benevolence and specific trust was stronger for subordinates than for supervisors. One implication of our findings is that trust can develop differently in bottom-up versus top-down organizational relationships. This study provides evidence that supervisors and subordinates emphasize different aspects of trustworthiness when evaluating their trust of a focal officer, and this process was different for general versus specific trust referents. The study also extends previous research by replicating previous findings across raters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• James H. Davis

  University of South Alabama

  19 shared

• F. David Schoorman

  Purdue University System

  16 shared

• Paul W. Mulvey

  7 shared

• Mark A. Fuller

  St. Francis Xavier University

  6 shared

• Jing Zhao

  Henan Agricultural University

  5 shared

• Richard S. Warr

  North Carolina State University

  4 shared

• Michele Williams

  4 shared

• Mark B. Gavin

  West Virginia University

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Influential Article Award 1995-1999 by the Conflict Manageme…
• Best of the Second Decade Award for Frame-Breaking, Innovati…
• Outstanding Teacher Award at the College of Business at the…
• Financial Management top 10 in business school research with…