The government's struggle to communicate with its constituents has consequences. Public trust in government is at a near historic low. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are trying something new to see if they can at least explain the civic dysfunction -- if not repair it.

The leaders of the effort, Ceasar McDowell and Ayushi Roy, are our guests on this episode of "Go Public." They suggest that citizen engagement has been crippled by trauma on both sides of the conversation -- the public whose trust has been violated by broken promises and government agencies on the receiving end of blowback.