General Trust Scale Research Articles

Development of a Scale to Measure Tolerance Toward Diverse Others1

AbstractOpportunities to interact with people from different cultures and languages have increased as society has become more globalized. Hence, it has become increasingly important for people living in today's international society to accept and try to build trusting relationships with those who may perceive the world differently. This study aimed to develop a scale to measure people's tolerant attitudes toward diverse others (hereafter, tolerance toward diverse others). Furthermore, after confirming the newly developed scale's reliability and validity, we used it to examine its associations with general trust and cultural interdependent self‐construal. Albeit exploratively, we then discuss the relationships among these variables. Our results showed that scores on the newly developed Tolerance of Diverse Others Scale were positively correlated with scores on the General Trust Scale and also with scores on tolerance‐related items in the World Values Survey. Furthermore, the harmony‐seeking aspect of cultural interdependent self‐construal was positively correlated with tolerance toward diverse others, while the rejection‐avoidance aspect was negatively correlated, although the positive correlation between harmony seeking and rejection avoidance was shown. We discuss what the results suggest about Japanese individuals' perceptions of diverse others.

Psychologiczne uwarunkowania przywiązania do miejsca: zaufanie społeczne, styl przywiązania i lęk. Badanie longitudinalne w okresie pandemii COVID-19

The aim of this study was to explore the subject of place attachment and connected factors (such as social trust, attachment style and anxiety) in the context of enforced isolation caused by world pandemic COVID-19. For this purpose a longitudinal study was conducted, in the first part of which 127 people were examined, and 35 in second. During the survey were used: Place Attachment Scale, General Trust Scale, Relationship Questionnaire, and STAI -X1 Questionnaire. The study confirmed the negative relationship between place attachment and anxiety: the higher the level of anxiety, the lower the strength of place attachment. This relationship was also found to be stable over time and significant during both the first and third lockdown.

Адаптация русскоязычного варианта Шкалы генерализованного доверия Т. Ямагиши на выборке студентов

Адаптация русскоязычного варианта Шкалы генерализованного доверия Т. Ямагиши на выборке студентов

Структурная модель социального интеллекта и генерализованного доверия личности, основанная на эмансипационной теории доверия Т. Ямагиши

Introduction.This research focuses on T. Yamagishi’s hypothesis on the link between generalized trust and the ability to accurately assess the other’s reliability. As noted in a number of works, the hypothesis requires verification insofar as a more detailed analysis of the structure of social intelligence is concerned. This research explores the link between generalized trust and structural components of social intelligence and establishes a new structural model of social intelligence which includes generalized trust. Materials and methods. The study sample consisted of 233 students of Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. The following methods were used to measure empirical indicators: General Trust Scale (generalized trust), The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (social skills, social awareness and social information processing) and The Empathy Quotient (cognitive empathy and emotional reactivity). Results of the study. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) showed that those respondents who were predisposed to trust scored higher on social skills, social awareness and emotional reactivity. In accordance with the regression model, these indicators were identified as determinants of the level of generalized trust. The results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a two-factor structure of the empirical indicators; the factors were interpreted as the “Social perception and ability to analyze the context of interaction” factor and “Social openness and sensitivity” factor. Conclusion. This two-factor structure is proposed as a new structural model of social intelligence. Based on the results, T. Yamagishi’s emancipation theory of trust was expanded. The functions of structural components of social intelligence within the context of the emancipation theory were discussed. The inclusion of empathy into T. Yamagishi’s “generalized trust—social perception” link hypothesis was explained. Further research is proposed to explore the interrelationship between generalized trust and empathy, and to test the proposed model of social intelligence.

Food literacy and food choice – a survey-based psychometric profiling of consumer behaviour

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the associations between food literacy, consumer profiling and purchasing behaviour in a sample of Italian consumers.Design/methodology/approachParticipants (N = 194) completed an online survey including personal data, two questionnaires on purchase behaviour and food consumption, the General Trust Scale (GTS), a questionnaire assessing individual chronotype and two scales about food literacy: one investigating nutritional knowledge (short food literacy questionnaire, SFLQ) and the other focussing on procedural skills (self-perceived food literacy scale, SPFL). Associations between food literacy, consumer profiling and purchase behaviour were analysed with linear regression models.FindingsParticipants with specific education in nutrition reported higher scores in food literacy. The final score of food literacy was predicted by a greater attention to nutritional content and nutritional properties of products. Women paid more attention to nutritional properties than men, and they obtained higher scores in SFLQ. Evening types obtained lower scores in SFPL compared to intermediate and morning chronotypes. Body mass index (BMI) was negatively correlated to SPFL score, while it was associated with the easy availability of a product, so that obese (BMI ≥ 30) subjects considered the easy availability of a product more important compared to non-obese ones (BMI < 30).Originality/valueThis study investigates the influence of personal and psychometric variables of consumer profiling on food literacy and consequently on purchase behaviour, paving the way for implementing healthier food consumption policies. These findings reinforce the primacy of specific education in building healthy eating habits.

Should Trust Be Stressed? General Trust and Proactive Coping as Buffers to Perceived Stress.

Stress is becoming an increasingly important public health concern. Assuming that individual levels of trust and coping can buffer psychological stress, we explore validated measures of general trust [General Trust Scale (GTS)], proactive coping [Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI)], jointly with personality [Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to experience (HEXACO)], and intolerance of uncertainty (IUS), as predictors of perceived stress [Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)]. Data were collected from Qualtrics research panels using quota sampling to obtain two representative American community samples. The assumed alleviating effects of GTS and PCI on PSS remained but were attenuated when modeled jointly with HEXACO, IUS, and socio-economic background variables [socioeconomic status (SES)] in hierarchical regressions. In Study 1 (N = 1,213), SES explained 19% and HEXACO explained 29% of the variance in PSS. Introducing IUS and GTS added significant but small portions of explained variance. In Study 2 (N = 1,090), after controlling for SES which explained 18% of the variance, IUS explained an additional 18% of the variance in PSS. Adding GTS to the model showed modest contributions whereas PCI added 9% of explained variance in the final hierarchical step. The findings highlight that GTS and PCI remain important variables even after controlling well-known factors such as personality and ability to tolerate uncertainty. However, given the weak effects of GTS, to consider trust as a remedy for stress may be of limited use in clinical practice since it could potentially be explained largely as a proxy for a beneficial combination of personality, coping, and socioeconomic background.

Self-Esteem and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Depression and Interpersonal Trust.

Research has found that self-esteem is negatively associated with problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, the internal mechanisms underlying that relationship need further investigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of depression and interpersonal trust in the relationship between self-esteem and PSU among adolescents. A questionnaire comprised of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Inclusive General Trust Scale (IGTS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and personal questions was administered to 637 students (female = 355) at two middle schools in Shanghai, China. Correlation analyses, mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis were performed. A moderated mediation model was established, which revealed: (1) a significant negative association between self-esteem and PSU, (2) depression mediated the relationship between self-esteem and PSU, and (3) the influence of depression on the relationship between self-esteem and PSU was moderated by interpersonal trust. The results indicated that low self-esteem was a risk factor, and interpersonal trust was a moderating factor for PSU among adolescents in the sample. Building adolescents’ self-esteem and increasing their interpersonal trust might decrease their PSU.

General trust scale: Validation in cross-cultural settings

Trust plays a critical role in all aspects of social functioning. In attempting to better understand trust cross culturally, a valid tool is essential. We conducted two studies to investigate the cross-cultural validity and utility of the Generalized Trust Scale (Yamagishi and Yamagishi 1994). In Study 1, the structural and convergent validity of the GTS was examined in a large Polish sample (N = 727). Our findings provided important preliminary evidence for the validity of this scale in this sample. Subsequently, Study 2 compared responses to the GTS from two culturally different countries: Poland (N = 203) and the United States (N = 230). The structure of the GTS remained invariant across these two cultures, and the level of trust was comparable. As expected Americans showed higher levels of happiness than Poles, yet the relationship between trust and happiness was positive and similar in strength for both countries. Our data provide preliminary support for the use of the GTS in cross-cultural comparisons; however, consideration of data at the item level may also be relevant and cross culturally useful.

Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms moderate the relationship between job stress and general trust in Chinese Han university teachers

BackgroundChronic exposure to stressful work environments can influence general trust. High job stress is associated with low trust in others. Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to general trust; however, few empirical studies have explored the important role of gene–environment interactions on general trust. In this study, the moderating roles of the polymorphisms OXTR rs53576 and OXTR rs2268490 in the relationship between job stress and general trust were evaluated. Methods362 healthy Chinese Han university teachers (196 males, 165 females, and 1 undisclosed) were included (Mage = 39.80, SD = 9.16). Standardized questionnaires about demographic characteristics, job stress, and general trust scale were collected. Blood samples were collected for OXTR rs53576 and rs2268490 genotyping. ResultsJob stress scores showed a significant negative main effect on general trust (p < 0.001), while OXTR rs53576 and rs2268490 did not (p > 0.05). The effect of the interaction between job stress and OXTR rs53576 or rs2268490 on general trust was significant, even after controlling for gender and age. High job stress was associated with low general trust in OXTR rs53576 homozygous individuals (GG/AA) or OXTR rs2268490 CT individuals, demonstrating that the GA genotype in OXTR rs53576 and CC/TT genotype in OXTR rs2268490 are protective genotype of general trust. LimitationsThis study used a cross-sectional design, only considered Chinese Han university teachers, and only examined two polymorphisms in OXTR. ConclusionsOur findings provide evidence that gene–environment interactions influence general trust and identify a new locus (rs2268490) underlying this phenotype.

Physician Trust and Home Remedy Use Among Low-Income Blacks and Whites with Hypertension: Findings from the TRUST Study.

Home remedies are used for the treatment of hypertension despite unsubstantiated claims of their effectiveness. Home remedy use is often attributed to mistrust towards healthcare providers. Few studies examine the relationship between home remedy use and physician trust. The objective of this study was to examine and compare the association between home remedy use and trust in physicians in a cohort of low-income Blacks and Whites with hypertension living in an inner city in Alabama. A cross-sectional examination was conducted among 925 Black and White patients receiving care at an urban hospital. Data was collected from in-person surveys. Trust in physicians was self-reported using the Hall General Trust Scale which included questions about honesty, confidentiality, and trust. Home remedy use was self-reported using the Brown and Segal scale which included questions about home remedy use and types of home remedies used. Covariates included demographic factors such as age, race, gender, and health outcomes. Data were analyzed using linear regression. Twenty-eight percent of Black and 15% of White participants reported home remedy use (p = 0.001). Black home remedy users (38.9) and non-users (39.3) had similar trust scores (p = 0.582). Whites home remedy users (32.9) reported lower trust in physicians than White non-users (37.7) (p = 0.026). Black home remedy users, non-users, and White non-users reported similar trust scores; the lowest trust scores were found among White home remedy users. Home remedy use was higher among Black participants. Future studies should examine the context of mistrust and home remedy use among Whites.

Social Experience and Trust on Prisoners and Non-Prisoners

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.

Abstract P310: Physician Trust and Home Remedy Use Among Low Income Blacks and Whites With Hypertension: Findings From the TRUST Study

Introduction: Home remedies are used for the treatment of hypertension, despite unsubstantiated claims of their effectiveness. Home remedy use is often attributed to mistrust towards healthcare providers. Few studies have examined the relationship between HR use and physician trust. The objective of this study was to examine the correlates of home remedy use and the relationship between trust in physicians in a cohort of low-income Blacks and Whites with hypertension living in an inner-city in the Deep South. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that White and Black home remedy users with hypertension would report greater mistrust towards physicians than individuals that were not using home remedies. Methods: A cross-sectional examination was conducted among 925 Black and White patients with hypertension receiving care at an urban hospital in the southeastern US. Trust in physicians was self-reported using the Hall General Trust Scale and home remedy use was self-reported using the Brown and Segal scale. Results: Twenty-eight percent (219 of 788) of Black and 15% (20 of 137) of White participants reported home remedy use (p=0.001). Black home remedy users and nonusers had similar trust scores (p=0.582). Whites home remedy users reported lower trust in physicians than white nonusers and Black home remedies users and nonusers (p=0.026). Conclusions: Black home remedy users, non-users, and White non-users reported similar trust scores. The lowest trust scores were found among White home remedy users. Home remedy use was higher among Black than White participants. This study highlights the importance of examining topics of home remedy use and physician trust among low-income White and Black populations. In conclusion, mistrust towards physicians was associated with greater use of home remedies among White participants with hypertension. Home remedy users may benefit from interventions that bolster trust between patients and providers, and facilitate discussion about home remedy use.

Public Trust in Physicians-Health Care Commodification as a Possible Deteriorating Factor: Cross-sectional Analysis of 23 Countries.

Trust in physicians has declined, and surveys of public opinion show a poor level of public trust in physicians. Commodification of health care has been speculated as a plausible driving force. We used cross-national data of 23 countries from the International Social Survey Programme 2011 to quantify health care commodification and study its role in the trust that patients generally place in physicians. A modified health care index was used to quantify health care commodification. There were 34 968 respondents. A question about the level of general trust in physicians and a 4-item “general trust in physicians” scale were used as our major and minor outcomes. The results were that compared with those in the reference countries, the respondents in the health care–commodified countries were approximately half as likely to trust physicians (odds ratio: 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.31-0.72) and scored 1.13 (95% CI: 1.89-0.37) less on the general trust scale. However, trust in physicians in the health care–decommodified countries did not differ from that in the reference countries. In conclusion, health care commodification may play a meaningful role in the deterioration of public trust in physicians.

Psychometric properties of the Trust in Physician Scale in Tamil Nadu, India.

Context:Trust in health care is of high intrinsic value. It also leads to positive outcomes such as better treatment adherence and disclosure of sensitive information. Therefore, there is a need to measure trust in health care objectively.Aims:To assess the psychometric properties of the Trust in Physician Scale in Tamil Nadu, India.Settings and Design:The study was conducted in a private tertiary hospital setting in Tamil Nadu by a cross-sectional survey design.Methods:The Trust in Physician Scale and General Trust Scale were administered to 288 participants in the waiting area of a tertiary care hospital in Tamil Nadu.Statistical Analysis:Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and Cronbach's alpha statistics were used to assess the validity and reliability of the scale.Results:The respondents were predominantly men from rural areas, older than 35 years of age, and with lesser than 8 years of schooling. The questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha of 0.707 (95% confidence interval 0.654–0.755). Exploratory factor analysis divided the questionnaire into four domains. Seven items loaded into factor 1 which explained dependability and competence of the physician, two items loaded on factor 2, and one each in factors 3 and 4. The latter four items had very low item to total correlations and hence did not contribute much to the questionnaire.Conclusions:The Trust in Physician questionnaire needs to be modified to accurately measure the domains of trust in the context of the study area. More qualitative studies are required to understand the domains of trust in this cultural and social context.

Adaptación al castellano de la Escala de Confianza General de Yamagishi.

The significance that trust has in social exchange relationships has led to a growing amount of literature dealing with this phenomenon at a theoretical and an applied level. With the aim of conducting trust research by means of an instrument with established reliability and validity, the General Trust Scale (Yamagishi &amp; Yamagishi, 1994) was translated into Spanish. The sample comprised 626 participants. Results indicate that the Spanish adaptation has satisfactory psychometric properties: test's reliability (α =.862) and items' discrimination (a ≥ 1.58). There was no differential item functioning regarding the participants’ gender, but differences aroused as regards to their age. The relationship with several dispositional and behavioral variables was assessed, being significant its correlation with agreeableness (r =.376) and, for the women, also with Openness to Experience (r =.135).

Reported racial discrimination, trust in physicians, and medication adherence among inner-city African Americans with hypertension.

We sought to determine if reported racial discrimination was associated with medication nonadherence among African Americans with hypertension and if distrust of physicians was a contributing factor. Data were obtained from the TRUST project conducted in Birmingham, Alabama, 2006 to 2008. All participants were African Americans diagnosed with hypertension and receiving care at an inner city, safety net setting. Three categories of increasing adherence were defined based on the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. Trust in physicians was measured with the Hall General Trust Scale, and discrimination was measured with the Experiences of Discrimination Scale. Associations were quantified by ordinal logistic regression, adjusting for gender, age, education, and income. The analytic sample consisted of 227 African American men and 553 African American women, with a mean age of 53.7 ± 9.9 years. Mean discrimination scores decreased monotonically across increasing category of medication adherence (4.1, 3.6, 2.9; P = .025), though the opposite was found for trust scores (36.5, 38.5, 40.8; P < .001). Trust mediated 39% (95% confidence interval = 17%, 100%) of the association between discrimination and medication adherence. Within our sample of inner city African Americans with hypertension, racial discrimination was associated with lower medication adherence, and this association was partially mediated by trust in physicians. Patient, physician and system approaches to increase "earned" trust may enhance existing interventions for promoting medication adherence.

Judgments About Others’ Trustworthiness: An fMRI Study

We investigated how information about others’ trustworthiness affects brain region activation in a functional MRI (fMRI) study. Participants were given statements about a person’s behaviors and were asked to judge whether or not the person was trustworthy while undergoing fMRI imaging. Participants read 32 statements, half of which were relevant to making judgments about trustworthiness, and half of which were irrelevant to making judgments about trustworthiness. We found that making trustworthiness judgments when reading relevant statements was associated with differential activation in five regions: the angular gyrus (AG), anterior cingulate (AC), left frontal lobe (LF), right frontal lobe (RF), and putamen/caudate nucleus (PU/CA). Previous studies using highly abstract economic game situations have also shown activation in these regions. These regions are also related to the learning process and to theory-of-mind processing. In addition, we found that people with high or low scores on a general trust scale showed less activation than did people with middle-range scores. These results suggest that we use trial-and-error learning to decide whether to trust others, and that this learning history (represented here as general trust level) influences automatic processing of new trust judgments.

Social memory, social stress, and economic behaviors

Social memory plays a pivotal role in social behaviors, from mating behaviors to cooperative behaviors based on reciprocal altruism. More specifically, social/person recognition memory is supposed, by behavioral-economic and game-theoretic analysis, to be required for tit-for-tat like cooperative behaviors to evolve under the N-person iterated prisoner's dilemma game condition. Meanwhile, humans are known to show a social stress response during face-to-face social interactions, which might affect economic behaviors. Furthermore, it is known that there are individual differences in a social stress response, which might be reflected in individual differences in various types of economic behaviors, partially via different capacities of social memory. In the present study, we investigated the acute effects of social stress-induced free cortisol (a stress hormone) elevation on hippocampus-dependent social memory by utilizing the Trier social stress test (consisting of a public speech and a mental arithmetic task). We also examine the correlation between an economic behavior-related personality trait (i.e., general trust scale) and social stress-induced cortisol elevations. We found that (1) social stress acutely impairs social memory during social interaction and (2) interpersonal trust reduces social stress response. Together, interpersonal trust may modulate economic behaviors via stress hormone's action on social cognition-related brain regions.

Interpersonal trust and social stress-induced cortisol elevation

A neuroendocrine correlate of interpersonal trust is relatively unknown. We investigated the relationship between an interpersonal trust-related personality (General Trust Scale) and cortisol elevation induced by social stress in 20 men. Spearman's rank order correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between social stress-induced cortisol elevation and General Trust Scale. The present results indicate subjects with higher degrees of interpersonal trust have lower levels of neuroendocrine response to social stress.

Trust, Gullibility, and Social Intelligence

A series of experiments conducted in Japan by Yamagishi and his associates are presented, all consistently showing that high trusters (as measured with a general trust scale) are more sensitive than low trusters to information potentially revealing lack of trustworthiness in others and judge other people's choice in a one‐shot prisoner's dilemma more accurately. Based on these findings, a new theoretical twist is introduced to the “emancipation theory of trust” originally proposed by Yamagishi &amp; Yamagishi (1994), that emphasizes the relation‐expansion role of trust in addition to the traditionally noticed relation‐fortification role of trust. When opportunity cost for staying in a commitment relation is generally high, it is more advantageous not to stay in secure and stable commitment relations but to explore opportunities that lie outside, and yet such social exploration involves the risk of being exploited by untrustworthy people. It is thus a more gainful strategy to invest “cognitive resources” in the nurturing of “social intelligence” needed to detect signals of untrustworthiness. General trust may be conceived as a by‐product of the development of such social intelligence. Those who have invested in the development of social intelligence can afford to maintain a high level of general trust, whereas those who have not are encouraged to assume that “everyone is a thief” and to refrain from pursuing potentially lucrative but risky outside opportunities.