A lack of trust about AIDS information is relatively widespread, particularly among African Americans, and is unrelated to access to information about AIDS, according to two UC Davis research psychologists. The distrust is directed toward official information concerning the transmission of HIV and is fueled by the beliefs that AIDS is being used as a form of genocide against minority groups and that information about AIDS is being withheld from the public, says Gregory Herek, who conducted the recent study with John Capitanio. To establish public trust, those who design AIDS educational programs should pay more attention to how they can increase the credibility of their messages and the sources who communicate them. To achieve these goals, Herek suggests AIDS educational programs likely need to be generated from within local communities and be implemented so as to recognize the multitude of health and economic problems plaguing a particular community. Such a strategy is especially important among African Americans and other disenfranchised minorities hard-hit by the epidemic, Herek says.