Social Experience and Trust on Prisoners and Non-Prisoners

Abstract

Trust is shaped by the role of personal interaction in social experience, including past experiences, individual knowledge of events experienced by close people, and exposure to information from the community. Based on this paradigm, individuals who are formed with different experience, knowledge, and information will have different trust. Aiming to examine the paradigm, this study investigated the differences of trust in two groups of participants with different experiences, i.e. prisoners (n= 68) and non-prisoners (n = 68). Using the questionnaire of trust in institution, trust in people scale, and inclusive general trust scale, the data were analyzed by t-test, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon. Results showed that there were no significant differences between groups in the level of general trust, and there were significant differences between groups in the level of trust in institution. This study supports the opinion that trust is more a matter of culture.