Trusting other people

Abstract

The importance of interpersonal social trust is difficult to exaggerate. It builds societies and lowers most kinds of transaction costs. The normative ideal in a society is to have high levels of social trust and a minimum of differences in trust between social, economic, and political groups. These normative expectations are put to a test using World Value Survey data from some 80 different countries. If one had high hopes, the outcome is somewhat of a disappointment. The level of social trust is only on a reasonable level in a very limited number of countries—in the Nordic countries, in the Netherlands, in Switzerland,Australia, and New Zealand. In most other countries, the majority of citizens do not trust their fellow man. Furthermore, except for gender and age differences in social trust, which tend to be minor in most countries, there are rather clear (and normatively unwanted) group differences in social trust in many countries, and especially so in established democracies. Citizens with university degrees, in good health, and gainfully employed do trust other people much more than citizens with low education, in poor health, and out of work. Less fortunate and less privileged people across the world tend to have lower levels of interpersonal trust. That is not good for them, and it is not good for society.