Distrust and Mistrust in a High Trust Environment

Abstract

This chapter pursues the topic of low trust in high trust environments. The consequences of low institutional and social trust have become the object of intense interest within sociology. The chapter primarily focuses on the comparative study of changes in social trust levels and the effects of dominating high or low social trust majorities. It also focuses on the Danish low social trust minority and subsequently compares it to the Austrian low social trust majority, finding new differences and similarities in modes of trust. In the Danish case the high trust responses are closer to the centre of the first axis, whereas in the Austrian case the low trust responses are closer to the centre of their population mean. Finally the chapter concludes that the Austrian case supports the concept of mistrust, but offers no evidence to support the concept of distrust. Keywords:Austrian low social trust majority; Danish low social trust minority; distrust; high trust environment; mistrust