Experiences matter
A longitudinal study of individual-level sources of declining social trust in the United States
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2092525 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Mewes (0000-0003-4974-2956, Lund University, corresponding author), Malcolm Fairbrother (0000-0002-1400-2141, University of Graz), Giuseppe Nicola Giordano (0000-0002-6719-6680, Lund University), C Wu (0000-0003-2652-5684, York University), R Wilkes (0000-0003-2078-3308, University of British Columbia) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Pages | 102537 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0049-089X • E-ISSN: 1096-0317 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102537 |
| PMID | 33653587 |
| OpenAlex | W3127844637 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 39 |
| References cited | 79 |
The US has experienced a substantial decline in social trust in recent decades. Surprisingly few studies analyze whether individual-level explanations can account for this decrease. We use three-wave panel data from the General Social Survey (2006-2014) to study the effects of four possible individual-level sources of changes in social trust: job loss, social ties, income, and confidence in political institutions. Findings from fixed-effects linear regression models suggest that all but social ties matter. We then use 1973-2018 GSS data to predict trust based on observed values for unemployment, confidence in institutions, and satisfaction with income, versus an alternative counterfactual scenario in which the values of those three predictors are held constant at their mean levels in the early 1970s. Predicted values from these two scenarios differ substantially, suggesting that decreasing confidence in institutions and increasing unemployment scarring may explain about half of the observed decline in US social trust
Confidence interval · Counterfactual thinking · Demographic economics · Econometrics · Economic growth · Economics · European Social Survey · Fixed effects model · General Social Survey · Interpersonal ties · Longitudinal data · Panel data · Political science · Politics · Social capital · Social trust · Sociology · Statistics · Survey data collection · Tracking (education) · Unemployment · World Values Survey · Demography · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Capital and Networks · Social Psychology
Falling Behind, Losing Trust
Constancy of Self-Attitudes from Adolescence to Midlife
Family Functioning and Community Resilience During the Covid-19 Lockdown Period in Turkey
Building bridges of trust
Are “bad” jobs bad for democracy? Precarious work and electoral participation in Europe
Income and Social Trust in Latin America
Why is trust lower in Quebec? A cultural explanation
What is social trust
Local government capacity as climate remedy
Political Network Diversity and Trust in Online Political Content
Welfare-state selectivity, universality, and social trust in Europe, 2002–2019
National Experiences and Trust in China’s National Government Among Hong Kong Chinese Youth
At Which Level Does Unemployment Affect Political Trust? A Multilevel Analysis Across Europe
Linking individual and collective social capital
Social trust during the pandemic
Policy stringency and social trust in China
Long panel studies of small-scale rural societies in the Global South
Heterogeneous Effects of Military Service and Confidence in the Military on Social Trust in the United States
Measuring particularized trust
Automation and Political Realignment
Childhood poverty and political participation
The Effect of Cultural Trust on Cooperation in Two Behavioral Experiments
Fragile Trust, Stable Mistrust
An Empirical Comparison of Four Generalized Trust Scales
Scar effects of unemployment on generalised social trust
The Stickiness of Meritocratic Beliefs From Adolescence to Adulthood in Singapore
Rhetoric Versus Reality? A Comparative Study of Public and Non‐Public Sector Employees' Perceptions of Discrimination
Humanistic Optimal Functioning Predicts Low Youth Violence
Social Trust in China
All cops are trusted? How context and time shape immigrants’ trust in the police in Europe
Intergenerational Transmission of Trust
The State and Trust
Doubly disadvantaged
Unpacking Young Adults' Voting Preferences
Change in Personal Culture over the Life Course
Valid and Reliable Measures of Generalized Trust
Can Bureaucrats Break Trust? Testing Cultural and Institutional Theories of Trust with Chinese Panel Data
When does criminal victimization undermine generalized trust? A weighted panel analysis of the effects of crime type, frequency, and variety
Social trust, cultural trust, and the will to sacrifice for environmental protections
Fixed Effects Regression Models
Declines in Trust in Others and Confidence in Institutions Among American Adults and Late Adolescents, 1972–2012
Unemployment Alters the Set Point for Life Satisfaction
Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies
Growing to Trust
Who feels it? Income inequality, relative deprivation, and financial satisfaction in U.S. states, 1973-2012
Bowling Alone
Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Social Capital
Handbook of Research Methods on Trust
Age, Period and Cohort Effects On Social Capital
Do Social Connections Create Trust? An Examination Using New Longitudinal Data
Losing a Job
Contextual generalized trust and immunization against the 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic in the American states
Social and Unsocial Capital
Reliability of the Core Items in the General Social Survey
Trust and Public Support for Environmental Protection in Diverse National Contexts
The Moral Foundations of Trust
Who trusts
How do We Learn to Trust? A Confirmatory Tetrad Analysis of the Sources of Generalized Trust
Is Trust Rigid or Malleable? A Laboratory Experiment
The Effects of Racial Segregation on Trust and Volunteering in US Cities
Finding critical trusters
Employment Stability in the U.S. Labor Market
Work Centrality in Germany, Israel, Japan, and the United States
The three worlds of welfare capitalism
E Pluribus Unum
Where You Stand Depends Upon Where Your Grandparents Sat
Changes in Income Predict Change in Social Trust
Education and Social Trust
Generalized Trust Through Civic Engagement? Evidence from Five National Panel Studies
Trusting the State, Trusting Each Other? The Effect of Institutional Trust on Social Trust
A Genetic Basis for Social Trust
Representation in an Era of Political and Economic Inequality
Spheres of trust
Questioning the New Liberal Dilemma
Welfare States and Social Trust
Making and Breaking Social Capital
What Have We Learned About Generalized Trust, If Anything
Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital
Social Capital in Britain
Rethinking the Decline in Social Capital
The State and Social Capital
How Welfare Regimes Generate and Erode Social Capital
Tuning In, Tuning Out
Inequality, Trust, and Civic Engagement
Bowling Alone
Social Trust and Value Change
Environmental group membership, collective action and generalised trust
Self-rated health, generalized trust, and the Affordable Care Act
Trust, happiness and mortality
Social capital and self-rated health - A study of temporal (causal) relationships
Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust
Measuring Stability and Change in Personal Culture Using Panel Data
Inequality and the erosion of trust among the poor
Unemployment, Trust in Government, and Satisfaction with Democracy
Models for Three-Wave Panel Data
What You Can-and Can't-Do With Three-Wave Panel Data
How Persistent Is Generalised Trust
Labour Market Insecurity and Generalized Trust in Welfare State Context
Negative Experiences and Trust
Danish Exceptionalism
Love Thy Neighbor? Ethnoracial Diversity and Trust Reexamined
Is Social Capital Declining in the United States? A Multiple Indicator Assessment
Does Migration Affect Trust? Internal Migration and the Stability of Trust among Americans
How does gun violence affect Americans' trust in each other
Partisan strength, political trust and generalized trust in the United States
(Dis)placing trust
Does inequality erode social trust? Results from multilevel models of US states and counties
Interpersonal trust
Re-thinking the decline in trust
Yet Another Case of Nordic Exceptionalism? Extending Existing Evidence for a Causal Relationship Between Institutional and Social Trust to the Netherlands and Switzerland
Is Trust in Others Declining in America? An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis
Market, Family, and State Sources of Income Instability in Germany and the United States
Factors Relating to Misanthropy in Contemporary American Society
| Unique citing works | 39 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7,8 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 37 |