Problematic field of studying public trust in Russia: content analysis of scientific publications

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the analysis of evolution of research practices and approaches of the Russian scholars towards the problem of trust in Russian society, as well as determination of the key trends and specificity of social trust/distrust in the Russian society. Application of the methodology of content analysis allows analyzing the dynamics of domestic publications, as well as revealing the most relevant vectors of psychological, economic and social research. The most cited publications that outline the key trends in the transformation of public trust in modern Russia are determined. The author observes not only the shift in focus of study of the problem of trust from political to socioeconomic and informational contexts, but also significant differentiation in examination of various aspects of public trust. The novelty of this research lies in detection and classification of the relevant trends in the transformation of public trust in Russia. Public trust alongside public distrust in the government manifest as the basic factor in relation to other socioeconomic and cultural institutions. At the same time, there author observes low differentiation between the images of trust and distrust among  Russian population, low level of both interpersonal and institutional trust, as well as tendency towards using the images of the Soviet past as the markers of trust or distrust in the existing social institutions. A disposition towards increase of the role of social networks in the development of the images of trust or distrust is revealed.