Who trusts? The origins of social trust in seven societies
Who trusts? The origins of social trust in seven societies
his article identifies six main theories of the determinants of social trust, and tests them against survey data from seven societies, 1999-2001. Three of the six theories of trust fare rather poorly and three do better. First and foremost, social trust tends to be high among citizens who believe that there are few severe social conflicts and where the sense of public safety is high. Second, informal social networks are associated with trust. And third, those who are successful in life trust more, or are more inclined by their personal experience to do so. Individual theories seem to work best in societies with higher levels of trust, and societal ones in societies with lower levels of trust. This may have something to do with the fact that our two low trust societies, Hungary and Slovenia, happen to have experienced revolutionary change in the very recent past, so that societal events have overwhelmed individual circumstances.
social trust, social capital, cleavages, personality, cross-national comparison, euromodule survey
93-137
Delhey, Jan
e2b0dafe-9d05-40b1-a100-1285a0505e92
Newton, Kenneth
17e0a529-235b-4960-824d-268f31e63d61
2003
Delhey, Jan
e2b0dafe-9d05-40b1-a100-1285a0505e92
Newton, Kenneth
17e0a529-235b-4960-824d-268f31e63d61
Delhey, Jan and Newton, Kenneth
(2003)
Who trusts? The origins of social trust in seven societies.
European Societies, 5 (2), .
(doi:10.1080/1461669032000072256).
Abstract
his article identifies six main theories of the determinants of social trust, and tests them against survey data from seven societies, 1999-2001. Three of the six theories of trust fare rather poorly and three do better. First and foremost, social trust tends to be high among citizens who believe that there are few severe social conflicts and where the sense of public safety is high. Second, informal social networks are associated with trust. And third, those who are successful in life trust more, or are more inclined by their personal experience to do so. Individual theories seem to work best in societies with higher levels of trust, and societal ones in societies with lower levels of trust. This may have something to do with the fact that our two low trust societies, Hungary and Slovenia, happen to have experienced revolutionary change in the very recent past, so that societal events have overwhelmed individual circumstances.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 2003
Keywords:
social trust, social capital, cleavages, personality, cross-national comparison, euromodule survey
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 34523
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/34523
ISSN: 1461-6696
PURE UUID: c232ec97-67fb-48b8-a3e7-b9e4e5d77fe9
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 17 May 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:48
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Jan Delhey
Author:
Kenneth Newton
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics