Does Participation in Social Networks Foster Trust and Respect for Other People—Evidence from Poland

Beata Łopaciuk-Gonczaryk

doi:10.3390/su11061733

Abstract

A shortage of social capital may hinder sustainable development. According to the “social capital dream” there is a virtuous circle between participation in social networks, trust, and cooperation. It is a promising idea for proponents of sustainability, as it is easier to promote participation than affect social norms. Participation may, however, lead to particularized and not generalized trust, which hinders social inclusion and undermines the idea of a sustainable society. The aim of this paper is to validate the role of participation in informal and formal social networks in enhancing social trust and respect towards others. The relevance of both strong and weak ties is considered. Fixed-effects modeling on three-wave data from a Polish social survey is utilized. An increase in generalized trust corresponds with an increase in the acquaintances network, a decrease in the family and friends network, and an increase in volunteering. A rise in expectations about the cooperativeness of others is enhanced by an increase in the family and friends network, and by volunteering. The lack of respect for some groups of people is not affected by participation in organizations and informal networks. Overall within-person heterogeneity is small, suggesting that possibilities for fostering moral trust by participation are limited.

Highlights

Social capital has been well acknowledged as an important factor of economic growth [1,2,3]
Taking into consideration that heterogeneity in all the considered dependent variables was more affected by between- than within-person variance, the results support the arguments of authors claiming that the possibility of fostering social trust by an increase in participation is limited [22,40,45,58]
As illustrated by the descriptive analysis, the type of organization and the level of diversity between members of social networks are worthy of consideration

Summary

Introduction

Social capital has been well acknowledged as an important factor of economic growth [1,2,3] It matters even more in the context of sustainable development, and the recognition of this fact is growing in literature [4]. Social capital, associated with notions of reputation, trust, and reciprocity, enhances collective action and helps to solve the problem of governing commons by reducing transaction and monitoring costs [9,10]. This is especially important for the protection of endangered national resources, like fisheries and forests [11,12], and dealing with climate change [13]. People who trust others and feel identification with a community care more for a group/public good and it is not surprising that social capital correlates with pro-environmental norms and attitudes [16,17]

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Methods

Conclusion