Exploring Social Trust: Analyzing Cross-Country and Generational Trends

Funded by the European Union Workshop Exploring Social Trust: Analyzing Cross-Country and Generational Trends May Doušak, Živa Broder The Public Opinion and Mass Communication Research Centre, UL, FDV Moderated by: Irena Vipavc Brvar Slovenian Social Science Data Archives, UL 2-3 October 2025, Online 2 Do you trust me? 3 Trust you with WHAT, right? Trust them to teach me? Trust them with my secrets? Trust they won’t do anything I wouldn’t like? Trust they will not harm me? Trust they will help me if something happens to me? Trust they will work in my best interest? Trust they will not break anything? Trust they will behave? ... 4 Whom do we trust? Yourself? Relatives? Friends? Coworkers? Your kids? Your s.o.? Business partners? People in general? Government officials? Business representatives, salespeople? Institutions? The Police? Your pet? Your car? :-) 5 Trust is... »A belief that others will not, at worst, willingly or unwillingly do harm, and will, at best, act in your interest« (Hardin 1998; Warren, 1999; Gambetta, 1988, Newton, 2002) 6 Let’s add in some dimensions Institutional (political) trust Social trust 7 Two dimension, two questions, right? Say, »How much do you trust other people« and »how much do you trust your [political] institutions«? 8 It’s a little more complicated... Trust is a tricky concept; if we have space, we usually measure it as a latent construct. To calculate a latent construct, we need a model. Source: Diamantopoulos, 2000 9 Measuring unmeasurable Institutional trust Social trust x1 x2 x3 xn δ1 … ... xn+ 1 xn+ 2 xn+ 3 xn+m … ... δ2 δ3 δn δn . δn . δn . δn . λ1 λ2 λ1 λ3 λn λn+ 1 λn+ 2 λn+ 3λn+m β 16 Grice’s maximes of conversation Quantity (be informative) Provide all the necessary information but leave unnecessary details! Quality (be truthful) Can you lie by telling the truth? Relation (be relevant) Ommit irrelevant information Manner (be clear) Avoid obscurity, ambiguity, be brief & orderly 17 PRACTICE -> general trust by country (where do people trust more) -> by gender -> by age -> by time (Round 1 VS round 13 in your country) 18 Where does trust come from? We all know it takes time to build it –and it can be destroyed in a moment. Is it a personality trait? Is it a property of a society? Is it genetically predetermined? Is it learned / adopted in early childhood? Is it learned / adopted through the lifetime? 19 Individual theories Core personality trait theory: It’s a personality trait adopted early in childhood Social success theory: Later experience in life: winners in society are more trustful. 20 PRACTICE Try to test the individual theory: are winners in the society more trustful? You pick the winner variables! Does you data confirm the individual theory? 21 PRACTICE If the data (mostly) confirmed individual theories, why are some nations generally more trustful than others? How come has »trust« in West Germany risen in less than a lifetime from 9% in 1948 to 45% in 1993? 22 Societal theories Trust is the product of experience in a society; the trust scores tell us more about societies and social systems than about the personality and social types living in them. 23 Voluntary organisation theory A society that is well founded upon a large and varied range of voluntary associations and organisations is likely to generate high levels of trust. 24 Chicken and egg problem Do people become more trusting as a result of close and sustained interaction with others in voluntary organisations? Or is it, rather, that trusting people join voluntary associations and get involved with their community, leaving distrusting ones at home to watch television? Do people develop higher levels of trust because life has been kind to them, or is life kind to them because they are trusting? Main data users: 25 1. Various academic communities 2. Policy makers and public administration 3. Professional publics and mass media 32 33 34 Topics: •norms and values •religiosity •political system •quality of life •social minorities •family, everyday life •work, profession •health •mass media •social capital •social exclusion •life events •enviroment... Goals: •improvement of the educational system •Improvement of governance and management (information on societal systems) •Improving quality of life (monitoring social trends as feedback for action) •Detection of democratic or anti-democratic potential in European societies •Highlighting potential hotspots of social tensions and conflicts •Prevention of injustice and inequality ISSP –Trust related variables: 35 36 EVS –Trust related variables: 37 38 39 40 41