When Everyone Pays the Price: Collective Reputation and the Spread of Distrust in Professional Communities

Research question & overview

The article examines how an individual event develops into collective reputational consequences. Shared professional affiliation can become a basis for distrust even without personal involvement.

Institutional memory, trust and professional-status verification are central to the analysis. Journalism provides an example of a field in which public reputation affects the ability to work.

The author considers the tension between an institution’s past experience and an individual’s claim to be assessed on their own conduct and qualifications.

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DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6891778

Bibliographic reference

Igor Leonov. (2026). When Everyone Pays the Price: Collective Reputation and the Spread of Distrust in Professional Communities. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6891778

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