["Social Science Quarterly, Volume 102, Issue 1, Page 324-342, January 2021. ", "\n\nObjectives\nThe political discourse surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted discontent with both Congress and corporations, a reality corroborated in recent scholarship highlighting declines in institutional confidence among U.S. citizens. Here we test theories of institutional confidence to understand the social and cultural determinants of confidence in Congress and corporations prior to the start of the 2016 presidential campaigns.\n\n\nMethods\nWe draw on data from the Religious Understandings of Science Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted in 2013–2014 (N = 9,416).\n\n\nResults\nWe find that political ideology largely explained confidence in corporations while social location (particularly racial‐ethnic identity and gender) strongly related to confidence in Congress. Seemingly opposing factors converged to predict trust in both institutions.\n\n\nConclusions\nInstitutional confidence is shaped not only by social and cultural factors but also by the symbolic functions of institutions themselves.\n\n"]