School of Communication alum Qin Li (PhD, 2024) received the Lynda Lee Kaid Outstanding Dissertation Award for her dissertation titled “In People We Trust: How Trust and Network Closure Impact Factual Beliefs and Misinformation Sharing.” Qin completed her PhD in 2024 under the advice of Professor Rob Bond and Director, School of Communication, Professor Kelly Garrett. Her work stands out for its strong theoretical and methodological contributions.

In her dissertation, Qin examines how social connections shape what people believe and share, particularly when it comes to factual information and misinformation. Central to her research is the concept of trust: when information comes from someone we trust, we’re more likely to believe it and pass it on.

Her study found that levels of trust between individuals can be influenced through trust-based experimental games. These findings open the door to new questions: Do different kinds of trust shape how we process information in different ways? And could it be that trust plays a more complex or perhaps less central role in belief and sharing than previously thought?