The MEVIR Framework: A Virtue-Informed Moral-Epistemic Model of Human Trust Decisions

The 21st-century information landscape presents an unprecedented challenge: how do individuals make sound trust decisions amid complexity, polarization, and misinformation? Traditional rational-agent models fail to capture human trust formation, which involves a complex synthesis of reason, character, and pre-rational intuition. This report introduces the Moral-Epistemic VIRtue informed (MEVIR) framework, a comprehensive descriptive model integrating three theoretical perspectives: (1) a procedural model describing evidence-gathering and reasoning chains; (2) Linda Zagzebski's virtue epistemology, characterizing intellectual disposition and character-driven processes; and (3) Extended Moral Foundations Theory (EMFT), explaining rapid, automatic moral intuitions that anchor reasoning. Central to the framework are ontological concepts - Truth Bearers, Truth Makers, and Ontological Unpacking-revealing that disagreements often stem from fundamental differences in what counts as admissible reality. MEVIR reframes cognitive biases as systematic failures in applying epistemic virtues and demonstrates how different moral foundations lead agents to construct separate, internally coherent "trust lattices". Through case studies on vaccination mandates and climate policy, the framework shows that political polarization represents deeper divergence in moral priors, epistemic authorities, and evaluative heuristics. The report analyzes how propaganda, psychological operations, and echo chambers exploit the MEVIR process. The framework provides foundation for a Decision Support System to augment metacognition, helping individuals identify biases and practice epistemic virtues. The report concludes by acknowledging limitations and proposing longitudinal studies for future research.