Social trust more strongly associated with well-being in individualistic societies

Abstract

Happiness is an important goal humans pursue. Previous studies found that generalized trust leads to greater well-being. To confirm the universality of previous findings, we conducted two studies using a sample of 69,578 participants from 48 countries to explore the relationship between different types of trust on well-being and the moderating effect of individualism on this relationship. In our Hierarchical Linear Models, all types of trust positively predicted well-being at the individual level, and the effects of trust on well-being were enhanced by country-level individualism. An explanation for this phenomenon is that social trust in collectivist societies mainly originates from conformity to social norms rather than personal preferences as in individualist societies. Findings of this study suggest that different types of social trust contribute to well-being in both individualist and collectivist societies. The well-being benefits of social trust can be enhanced if individuals have autonomy in determining the level of trust and the width of the trust circle.