Trust In Friends Research Articles

“That’s how the trust began”: Forming trusting friendships from adolescence to adulthood

Adolescence represents a sensitive period for embarking on trust-based friendships, which lay the foundation for successful close relationships later in life. The recent trust sequence model assumes that the trust process is universal regardless of the developmental stage. However, how the trust process may vary has been under-researched, especially during the critical period of adolescence and in the context of friendships. Therefore, this study qualitatively explored how people experience the process of forming trust in friends from early adolescence to adulthood. We conducted eight focus groups ( N = 39 participants) with early (11-12 years), middle (14-15 years), and late (18-19 years) Czech adolescents and a comparative sample of adults. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, employing an inductive, semantic, and experiential approach. We identified four overarching themes: (1) Experiential Trust Building, (2) Absence of Reasons to Not Trust, (3) Relying on Intuitive Connection, and (4) Trusting the Right/Wrong Person (the third and fourth themes being exclusive to adolescents). Participants thus described multiple variations of the trust process, with much of the variation residing in the perceived importance of diminishing the leap of faith, i.e., the risks and uncertainties inherent in trusting. Immediate affect and stronger moral essentialism were relevant to trust formation among adolescents but not adults. These findings provide unique insights into experiences with forming trusting friendships from early adolescence to adulthood and extend the trust sequence model. Further research should explore the trust process in low- and high trust societies.

The Different Roles of Structural and Cognitive Social Capital on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents.

This study evaluated the relationship of structural and cognitive dimensions of social capital with oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among adolescents. This was a cross-sectional study nested in a cohort of adolescents from southern Brazil. OHRQoL was evaluated using the short version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire 11-14 (CPQ11-14). Structural social capital was measured by attendance of religious meetings and social networks from friends and neighbours. Cognitive social capital was evaluated through trust in friends and neighbours, perception of relationships in the neighbourhood, and social support during hard times. Multilevel Poisson regression analysis was performed to estimate the association between social capital dimensions and overall CPQ11-14 scores; higher scores corresponded to worse OHRQoL. The sample comprised 429 adolescents with a mean age of 12 years. Adolescents who attended religious meetings less than once a month or never presented higher overall CPQ11-14 scores. Adolescents who did not trust their friends and neighbours, those who believe that their neighbours did not have good relationships, and those reporting no support during hard times also presented higher overall CPQ11-14 scores. OHRQoL was poorer in individuals who presented lower structural and cognitive social capital, with the greatest impact related to the cognitive dimension.

Analysis of Influencing Factors of Farmers’ Homestead Revitalization Intention from the Perspective of Social Capital

Revitalizing idle rural residential bases is essential for improving the utilization rate of residential resources, activating pastoral land resources assets, increasing farmers’ property income, and stimulating rural development vitality. Social capital is one of the essential social resources owned by farmers, which is closely related to rural social governance and farmers’ daily lives and plays an indispensable role in revitalizing residential land. Based on the theory of social capital and the survey data of 316 farm households in Shaanxi Province in 2022, this study first empirically analyzes the influencing factors of social capital and its constituent dimensions on farm households’ willingness to revitalize their home-steads using a Logit regression model, and then empirically analyzes the hierarchical structure relationship among the influencing factors using an ISM model. The results of the study show that: (1) Social capital and its three constituent dimensions of social network (“Contact with relatives, neighbors, and families” and “Contact with village committee staff”), social trust (“Trust in friends and relatives” and “Trust in village committee and other organizations”), and social participation (“Participation in meetings of village committees and other organizations”) have significant positive effects on farmers’ willingness to revitalize their residential land. (2) There are differences in the effects of different dimensions of social capital on farmers’ willingness to revitalize their homesteads: social trust as a deep-seated cause affects farmers’ social networks and social participation, which in turn affects farmers’ knowledge of homestead revitalization policies and ultimately farmers’ willingness to revitalize their homesteads. Based on the findings of the study, to improve farmers’ willingness to revitalize their homestead bases, government departments should base their efforts on the social capital characteristics of farmers, increase the cultivation of farmers’ social capital, and strengthen the publicity of the work of revitalizing homestead bases and related policies.

VALIDITY OF LEASE AGREEMENT SIGNED BY UNAUTHORIZED LEGAL SUBJECT REPRESENTING A BUSINESS ENTITY (CASE STUDY OF PANGKALPINANG DISTRICT COURT VERDICT NUMBER: 36/PDT.G/2020/PN.PGP Jo. BANGKA BELITUNG HIGH COURT VERDICT NUMBER: 24/PDT/2020/PTBBL)

An agreement is a legal relationship of wealth/property between two or more people, which gives the power inherent in certain rights to one party to obtain achievement and at the same time obliges the other party to fulfill the achievement. The validity of an agreement is determined by the fulfilment of the conditions contained in the provisions of Article 1320 of the Civil Code. Regardless of the protection by these legal norms, the majority of business actors or investors in Indonesia often make decisions based on trust in their close colleagues or relatives in running or managing their businesses. This sense of trust often causes problems in business activities. The consideration of appointing someone as an employee especially as a business manager/manager solely on the grounds that they have been long-time close friends (even considered as a family member) is not a guarantee that someone has the ability, integrity, and responsibility to develop and run a business as was the case in Pangkalpinang. The author describes the legal consequences that occur following lease transactions carried out on the basis of trust in friends. The method used is a normative juridical research method, while the data collected in this study is secondary data.

Validating a German Version of the Conspiracy Mentality Scale (CMS)

Increased scientific interest in conspiracy beliefs raises the need for validated individual difference measures in the general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories, otherwise referred to as conspiracy mentality. In this article, we present a German language version of the Conspiracy Mentality Scale (CMS). A representative sample of German-speaking Swiss residents (N = 468) filled in the scale, along with measures of trust in several sources of information, need for social validation, compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures, perceived severity of the pandemic, loneliness, functional literacy and interpersonal conflict. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-dimensional structure of the original scale. Positive correlations between conspiracy theory ideation and trust in friends and the need for social validation on the one hand, and negative correlations with trust in scientific publications and scientific experts, perceived severity of the pandemic and functional literacy on the other hand supported construct validity. We conclude that our German language version of the scale is a valid measure of conspiracy theory ideation and skepticism.

An analysis of COVID-19 information sources

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought new situations that require the effective delivery of health information across the world and it’s important to offer clear, consistent, and credible information on the pandemic to mitigate and control the outbreak.AimTo assess COVID-19 information source, need and trust among the rural community of southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 634 rural communities of southwest Ethiopia. The data were collected by interviewing individuals from selected households and analyzed by SPSS version 26. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to assess factors affecting information needs.ResultsRadio 484 (76.3%) was mostly used as a source of information for COVID-19, and government 404 (63.7%) and health professionals 345 (57.7%) were trusted. However, only 10 (1.6%) of the participants acquired information from health professionals. Around 395 (62.3%) of the participants needed additional information on COVID-19. Around 230 (58.2%) and 186 (47.1%) of the participants required additional information on cause and sign and symptoms, respectively. Age of < 45 years old (AOR: 2.11, 95% CI: 1.43, 3.12, P < 0.001), and absence of formal education (AOR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.35, 2.95, P: 0.001) were factors positively affecting the information needs of the participants on COVID-19. Church goers (AOR: 3.24; 95% CI: 2.03, 5.19; P < 0.001), television (AOR: 2.39; 95% CI: 1.63, 3.49; P < 0.001) and social media users (AOR: 4.52; 95% CI: 2.26, 9.04; P < 0.001) as source of information required additional information on COVID-19, and the participants that trusted social media (AOR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.64, 3.87; P < 0.001) and friends/relatives (AOR: 2.95: 95% CI: 1.51, 5.76; P < 0.001) were also required additional information on COVID-19.ConclusionsThe popular sources of COVID-19-related information were radio and television. The participants trusted the government and health professionals on COVID-19. However, less than 2% of the participants had information from health professionals. The majority of the participants wanted to learn more about COVID-19. The areas the participants required additional information include cause and signs and symptoms. Age, educational status, trust in social media, trust in friends, using the church, television and social media as a source were factors associated with information needs.

Trust in strangers and friends: The roles of agreeableness, open-mindedness, perspective taking, and trustworthiness

Limited research has been conducted to better understand the trait predictors of trust in strangers and friends. Therefore, the current study aims to fill this gap and examine whether agreeableness and open-mindedness are indirectly related to trust in strangers and friends via self-focused and other-focused perspective taking, and subsequently via trustworthiness. A convenience sample of 217 Slovaks aged 20–37 years completed self-report scales measuring agreeableness, open-mindedness, self-focused perspective taking, other-focused perspective taking, trustworthiness of strangers, trustworthiness of friends, trust in strangers, and trust in friends. Indirect effects analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The results revealed that agreeableness and open-mindedness were indirectly related to trust in strangers via either self-focused perspective taking or via other-focused perspective taking, and then via trustworthiness of strangers. Importantly, indirect relationships via other-focused perspective taking were negative, while an indirect relationship via self-focused perspective taking was positive. Additionally, agreeableness showed a direct relationship with trust in friends, and indirect relationships with trust in both strangers and friends only via trustworthiness. These findings imply that investigated trait factors play roles in trust in strangers and friends, although many of these factors seem crucial concerning trust in strangers; they also point out the significance of distinguishing different forms of perspective taking with different antecedents and consequences.

Association among trust in health care providers, friends, and family, and vaccine hesitancy

A health care provider’s vaccination recommendation is one of the most important factors influencing parents’ decisions about whether to vaccinate their children. Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy is associated with mistrust of health care providers and the medical system. We conducted a survey of 2440 adults through the RAND American Life Panel in 2019. Respondents were asked to rate their trust in pediatricians, OB/GYNs, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, friends and family for information about childhood vaccines. Respondents were also asked about willingness to vaccinate a hypothetical child as a measure of vaccine hesitancy. We used principal component analysis to characterize variance in responses on trust items and logistic regression to model the relationship between trust and vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with: (1) lower overall trust; (2) reduced trust in OB/GYNs and pediatricians and greater trust in doulas, midwives, and lactation consultants; and (3) greater trust in friends and family.

Habitus of Confidence and Identity

The problem of identity has become relevant at present. Being formed in a social environment, identity gives one a sense of the significance of its existence, becomes a means of unification, and provides the solidarization at the macro and micro levels of society. As a&#x0D; multifaceted phenomenon, identity is studied in various fields of science. In sociology, the attention of identity is given to various concepts, among which the structural constructivism&#x0D; by P. Bourdieu can be distinguished. Identity is based on the classification of entities each other’s interaction, on the identification of identical practices. At the base of the identical practices are similar principles of their creation. The concept of habitus provides an analytical model for studying and identifying the principles on the basis of which the interaction practices are created. In our case, as a habit, we consider the trust and the structures in which it is formed. Family structures and friendly networks act as such. To assess the formation of the habitus of trust in family structures, we believe it is possible on the basis of studying the opinion of respondents regarding the degree of interpersonal trust. The data indicate a high prevalence of this principle. A number of practices confirm this. Among them, the friendship and trust of friends, and seeking help in difficult situations.

Social trust and emotional health in rural older adults in China: the mediating and moderating role of subjective well-being and subjective social status

BackgroundChina is becoming an aging society. The emotional health of the elderly is gaining importance. Social trust is an important factor affecting emotional health, but existing studies have rarely considered the various effects of different types of social trust on rural elderly emotional health. Few studies have analysed the role of subjective well-being and subjective social status in the relationship between social trust and elderly emotional health.MethodsUsing the data of the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey 2016 (CLDS 2016) and regression models, this study selected 2084 rural respondents aged 60 years and above to analyse the impact of social trust on their emotional health. Social trust was divided into three categories: trust in family members, trust in friends, and trust in neighbours. This study also examined the mediating and moderating effects of subjective well-being and subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health.ResultsTrust in family members was significantly and positively associated with emotional health (coefficient = 0.194, P < 0.01) and subjective well-being (coefficient = 0.177, P < 0.01). Trust in friends was significantly and positively associated with emotional health and subjective well-being (coefficient = 0.097, P < 0.01; coefficient = 0.174, P < 0.01, respectively). Trust in neighbours was significantly and positively associated with emotional health and subjective well-being (coefficient = 0.088, P < 0.01; coefficient = 0.177, P < 0.01; respectively). Subjective well-being effectively reduced the impact of social trust in family, friends, and neighbours on the emotional health of the elderly by 0.023, 0.022, and 0.023, respectively. Trust in friends and neighbours significantly and positively affected respondents’ subjective social status (coefficient = 0.120, P < 0.05; coefficient = 0.090, P < 0.10; respectively). Subjective social status effectively reduced the impact of social trust in friends and neighbours on the emotional health of the elderly both by 0.004. The positive relationship between trust in family members and emotional health is weakened by subjective well-being.ConclusionsSocial trust, especially family relationships, play an important role in maintaining the emotional health of the rural elderly. In response to population ageing, more social policies must be introduced to care for the rural elderly and help them lead a happy and satisfactory life.

Trusting Kind Friends and Fair Leaders: How Relationships Affect the Antecedents of Trust

While a robust literature explores the antecedents of trust in organizations, thus far, none has addressed how and why the nature of trust differs across relationships. In the present research, we demonstrate that the nature of trust in friends and leaders is fundamentally different. Specifically, trust in friends relies on perceptions of benevolence, whereas trust in leaders relies on integrity. We establish these results across one pilot study, three main experiments, and three replications (total N = 1387) that explore how individuals trust targets as friends and leaders subsequent to observing targets resolve ethical dilemmas that involve tradeoffs between benevolence and integrity. Across our studies, we use both attitudinal and behavioral measures of trust, and a range of ethical dilemmas. This research deepens our understanding of both trust as well as the relationship between morality, hierarchy, and relationship formation.

Why do children and adolescents with epilepsy disclose or not disclose their condition to their friends?

A diagnosis of epilepsy substantially influences the lives of affected children and adolescents, and concealing the diagnosis can generate additional stress. However, little is known about whether children and adolescents communicate their diagnosis to their friends. We performed a survey at two German university hospitals. Epilepsy patients aged 6–18 years were asked why they did or did not disclose their condition to their friends. A total of 101 patients (44 female, 57 male) were interviewed. Twenty-one (21%) informed all their friends about their epilepsy, 63 (62%) informed only certain friends, and 3 (3%) did not specify. Fourteen (14%) did not inform any friends. Their reasons for informing their friends were trust in friends (47/87; 54%); questions from friends, e.g., about missed school days (29/87; 33%); a wish for friends to be informed in case of an emergency (15/87; 17%); and a desire to live openly with the condition (8/87; 9%). The reasons for not informing friends were fear of stigmatization/shame (4/14; 29%), discouragement from parents (3/14; 21%), and a wish for confidentiality (3/14; 21%).Conclusion: Most children and adolescents inform their friends about their epilepsy. Fear of stigmatization is the main reason for not informing friends about this condition.What is Known• An epilepsy diagnosis is a life-changing event for affected children and adolescents.• Having to conceal the diagnosis can be very stressful.What is New• Most pediatric epilepsy patients informed at least some close friends about their diagnosis motivated by trust in friends; questions from friends, e.g., about missed school days; and a wish for friends to be informed in case of an emergency.• Fear of stigmatization/shame, discouragement from parents, and a wish for confidentiality were the motivations for concealing the disease.

Factors of subjective household economic well-being in transition countries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between social capital and subjective ranking of household economic well-being in transition countries. The current study tests whether the performance of formal institutions moderates this link.Design/methodology/approachThe analyses are based on the data from the second wave of the Life in Transition Survey. The measures “generosity of welfare policy (social safety nets)” and “ability of formal institutions to control inflation” were provided by the Bertelsmann Transformation Index Project. The study uses four measures of social capital: trust in family, trust in friends and acquaintances, trust in most people and the number of support sources. To test the hypotheses, the study employs mixed-effects regression models.FindingsThe study indicates a significant positive effect of social capital on subjective household well-being. Formal institutions do not have a significant effect on subjective ranking of household well-being. The evidence on institutions as moderators rejects the substitution effect between formal institutions and social capital. Higher generosity of welfare policy institutions and higher ability of formal institutions to control inflation strengthen the positive effect of particular trust (trust in family and trust in friends and acquaintances) on subjective ranking on the ladder of social standing (subjective ranking of household well-being), which is in line with the “crowding in” theory.Originality/valueThe paper adds on the limited research on transition countries. The paper contributes to the discussion on “crowding in” and “crowding out” effects of formal institutions on social capital.

Impacts of Internet Use on Political Trust: New Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the impacts of Internet use on political trust in China. Negative effects are consistently found across variant measures of political trust. IV and PSM estimations confirm that the negative impact is causal. Further, placebo tests show that the traditional media as the primary information source hasn’t generated such effects and trust in friends hasn’t been impacted by Internet use. This effect is most likely attributable to the fact that internet use in China exacerbates public perception toward government and government officials, increases public demand for political participation, and raises the expectation of government performance.

Natural Disasters, Preferences, and Behaviors: Evidence from the 2011 Mega Flood in Cambodia

This paper uses original survey data to examine the impacts of the 2011 mega flood on preferences, subjective expectations, and behaviors among rice-farming households in Cambodia, a country with weak formal institutions. We find flood victims show greater risk aversion and altruism, and lower impatience and trust of friends and local governments. The disaster also induced flooded households to adjust upward their subjective expectations of future floods and reliance on natural resources as a safety net. Mediating through these changes in preferences and expectations, the 2011 flood also affected household behaviors, some of which could in turn affect long-term economic development and resilience to future floods. We find that flooded households reduced productive investment, substituted away from social insurance by increasing self- and market-based insurance instruments, and more importantly, increased the use of natural resources as insurance. These findings shed light on the design of incentive-compatible safety nets and development interventions in an economy with underdeveloped institutions.

A dynamic cloud service selection model based on trust and SLA in cloud computing

For high quality and trusted service selection problem, we propose a Dynamic Cloud Services Selection Model (DCSSM). Cloud service resources are divided into different service levels by Service-Level Agreement Management (SLAM). Each SLAM manages some cloud service registration information. In order to make the final trust evaluation values more practical, the model performs a comprehensive trust, which consists of direct trust and indirect trust. Firstly, combining weights consist of subjective weight and objective weight. Using rough sets to calculate objective weight, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to calculate subjective weight. The direct trust also considers transaction time and transaction amount, and then gets an accurate direct trust. Secondly, indirect trust considers user trust evaluation similarity, and it contains indirect trust of friends and indirect trust of strangers. Finally, when the transaction was completed, a direct trust dynamic update was proposed. The model is simulated using CloudSim. It was compared with three other methods, and the experimental results showed that the DCSSM performs better than the other three methods.

Antecedents of Word-of-Mouth Communication and Purchase Intention on Facebook

More and more business customers use social media to express their opinions about products, services and brands. This study aims to make a step further in understanding consumer engagement in electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on Facebook and its impact on recommending and purchasing products. To test our conceptual framework, structural equation modeling techniques have been applied to data collected through a self-administrated survey addressed to 640 Facebook users from Romania. Our model shows that Facebook’s perceived usefulness infl uences customer brand engagement, which in turn has an important effect on the intention to purchase the brand and recommend it to others (word of mouth). Therefore, people who use Facebook as a source of information about products and services are top eWOM providers. A brand that seeks to build authority on Facebook should look for eWOM providers, convert them into fans and “feed” them with attention-grabbing information that is worth spreading. This way, most of the fans will provide free word-of-mouth advertising, becoming true brand ambassadors. Our study has established that Facebook’s perceived usefulness not only engages online users with brands, but also makes this medium a perfect eWOM tool: it builds trust in friends’ recommendations, and eventually, makes the users sincere supporters of the brands they like.

LIFE SKILL DIMENSION BASED ON UNIFIED SPORTS SOCCER PROGRAM IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

This article aims to find out the optimization of 21st-century life skill dimension based on unified sports soccer program on physical education of intellectual disability. The 21st-century education dimension includes knowledge, skill, and character integrated into life skill in everyday life. Today the concept of education for all is included for intellectual disability. Children with intellectual disability, characteristic physiological and psychological characteristics are characterized by limited intelligence, social and other mental functions. In this regard, it is necessary to have special handling programs to solve life skill problems especially in physical education for intellectual disability. Inappropriate programs will have a more complex impact on intellectual disability life skill. Life skill formation program needs to be given in the form of a sports game, one of them is a unified sports soccer program. Unified programs are characterized by intellectual disability and non-intellectual disability activities as partners in teams, with intellectual disability child-specific tasks as goal scorers and non-intellectual disability feeders. This program provides self-exploration for intellectual disability children to boost confidence after scoring goals, and for partners to generate trust in friends (intellectual disability). Based on research experts note that unified sports soccer programs have a positive impact on behavior, friendship activity, adjective, inclusive of social factor, adaptive program, and individual development on intellectual disability. Therefore, the formation of life skill based on unified sports soccer program is suitable for use on intellectual disability as the implementation of physical education in the 21st century.

Trust in Health Information Sources: Survey Analysis of Variation by Sociodemographic and Tobacco Use Status in Oklahoma

BackgroundModern technology (ie, websites and social media) has significantly changed social mores in health information access and delivery. Although mass media campaigns for health intervention have proven effective and cost-effective in changing health behavior at a population scale, this is best studied in traditional media sources (ie, radio and television). Digital health interventions are options that use short message service/text messaging, social media, and internet technology. Although exposure to these products is becoming ubiquitous, electronic health information is novel, incompletely disseminated, and frequently inaccurate, which decreases public trust. Previous research has shown that audience trust in health care providers significantly moderates health outcomes, demographics significantly influence audience trust in electronic media, and preexisting health behaviors such as smoking status significantly moderate audience receptivity to traditional mass media. Therefore, modern health educators must assess audience trust in all sources, both media (traditional and digital) and interpersonal, to balance pros and cons before structuring multicomponent community health interventions.ObjectiveWe aimed to explore current trust and moderators of trust in health information sources given recent changes in digital health information access and delivery to inform design of future health interventions in Oklahoma.MethodsWe conducted phone surveys of a cross-sectional sample of 1001 Oklahoma adults (age 18-65 years) in spring 2015 to assess trust in seven media sources: traditional (television and radio), electronic (online and social media), and interpersonal (providers, insurers, and family/friends). We also gathered information on known moderators of trust (sociodemographics and tobacco use status). We modeled log odds of a participant rating a source as “trustworthy” (SAS PROC SURVEYLOGISTIC), with subanalysis for confounders (sociodemographics and tobacco use).ResultsOklahomans showed the highest trust in interpersonal sources: 81% (808/994) reported providers were trustworthy, 55% (550/999) for friends and family, and 48% (485/998) for health insurers. For media sources, 24% of participants (232/989) rated the internet as trustworthy, followed by 21% of participants for television (225/998), 18% for radio (199/988), and only 11% for social media (110/991). Despite this low self-reported trust in social media, 40% (406/991) of participants reported using social media for tobacco-related health information. Trust in health providers did not vary by subpopulation, but sociodemographic variables (gender, income, and education) and tobacco use status significantly moderated trust in other sources. Women were on the whole more trusting than men, trust in media decreased with income, and trust in friends and family decreased with education.ConclusionsHealth education interventions should incorporate digital media, particularly when targeting low-income populations. Utilizing health care providers in social media settings could leverage high-trust and low-cost features of providers and social media, respectively.

Dynamics of Social Capital in Russia

The article provides an analysis of social capital in the Russian Federation. Unlike the commonly used two type R. Patnem’s classification, the article considers three types of capital, (family, informal and formal capital), which, in turn, have social and structural dimensions. The paper is based on the data of the World Values Survey covering the period from 1990 through 2017. The survey data show that family capital has been stable over this period.Informal capital indicators, such as importance of friends and trust in friends, show opposite trends: an upward trend for the former and the downward trend for the latter. Structural dimension of formal social capital (membership in NGO and signing petitions) is characterized by positive dynamics, whereas social dimension indicators are negative.Generalized trust has increased, however intolerance towards bribe-taking, cheating on taxes, avoiding a fare on public transport and claiming government benefits, which a person is not entitled to, have considerably decreased.