Joe's program of research lies at the nexus of governance and the public where he investigates what trust is, how best to appropriately measure it, and its connection to "outcomes" like cooperation and compliance. Joe works closely with a variety of governance organizations including police agencies, court systems, natural resource authorities, public health departments, and a variety of other state and federal entities with the overarching goal of contributing to a cross-boundary social science of trust.
Joe serves as Graduate Program Director for the MSU Environmental Science and Policy Program; Editor in Chief of the Journal of Trust Research; and on the editorial boards of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law and Law and Human Behavior.
Joe also leads the Teaching, Researching, and Understanding the Social Science of Trust Lab. Joe teaches CJ 809 (The Cross-Boundary Social Science of Trust in the Institutional Context), CJ 906 (Advanced Quantitative Methods in Criminal Justice Research), and ESP 804 (Environmental Applications and Analysis).
Hamm, J.A., Ropp, J.W., Witwer, A., & Scott, B.A. (2023). Self-efficacy, prosocial impact, and self-legitimacy as psychological predictors of judicial officer performance. Public Administration Review.
Hamm, J., Wolfe, S.E., Cavanagh, C., & Lee, S. (2022). (Re)Organizing legitimacy theory. Legal and Criminological Psychology.
Hamm, J., Searle, R., Carr, J., & Rivers III, L. (2021). Public Vulnerability To The Police: A Quantitative Inquiry. Criminal Justice and Behavior.
Hamm, J.A., Trinkner, R., & Carr, J.D. (2017). Fair Process, Trust, and Cooperation: Moving Toward an Integrated Framework of Police Legitimacy. Criminal Justice and Behavior.
Hamm J.A., Carrera, J.S., Van Fossen, J.A., Key, K.D., Woolford, S.J., Bailey, S.B., McKay, A.S., Evans, L.B., & Calhoun, K.D. (2023). Conceptualizing trust and distrust as alternative stable states: lessons from the Flint Water Crisis. Ecology and Society.