Trust and Minority Groups

Abstract

In this chapter we consider the patterns of social and political trust on the basis of ethnoracial identification. Concerning social trust, the vast majority of individuals in ethnoracial minority groups trust less than majority group members. Although a large body of research attributes this to institutional rather than cultural effects, in practice these are very difficult to disentangle. However, in matters of political trust, the findings are more mixed. Whereas black Americans generally have lower political trust, other groups such as immigrants tend to have higher political trust. In the case of black Americans, political trust appears to be low in part because is more diffuse in nature and because of demographic underrepresentation.