Trust In Others Research Articles

From cobblestones to cohesion: the role of professional cycling in the development of social capital in Flanders, Belgium

Although a large literature links mass sports events to elements of social capital arena-based sports with worldwide popularity like football, no studies have previously considered whether such associations can be found for sports that are specifically popular in particular regions. Here, we focus on cycling in Belgium. During the spring of each year, a unique type of one-day professional cycling race is organised in Belgium and France: cobblestone races (e.g. Tour of Flanders). These are very popular among the public in Flanders, Belgium because of their long history and current Belgian cyclists’ strong performances in them. We focus on a key element of social capital: trust in others. Using online survey data from a long-running study by the Flemish Government (N = 33,671), we analyse whether Belgian cyclists’ performances in and television ratings of cobblestone races are associated with various types of trust among the Flemish public. Results indicate that strong Belgian performances in cobblestone races are associated with greater neighbourhood trust, while high television ratings are also associated with greater trust. Some of these effects are moderated by age and gender. We discuss the implications of our findings and avenues of future research on the role of locally popular sports in the development of social capital.

Features of personal anxiety as an indicator of psychological well-being in women

Introduction. The article presents the theoretical and methodological foundations and empirical study of the phenomenon of psychological well-being and personal anxiety in women as an indicator of their well-being. Aim. To substantiate theoretically and study empirically the impact of personal anxiety on women's well-being. Methods. Personal anxiety (Spielberger-Hanin), Psychological Well-being Scale (K. Riff), and The Scale of Subjective Well-being (A. Perude-Badu, adapted by M. Sokolova). Results. Psychological features of women with different levels of well-being and personal anxiety have been identified. The analysis of theoretical and empirical data confirmed the existence of a relationship between the psychological well-being and anxiety in women. Conclusions. In order to promote psychological well-being through socio-psychological support, a training program to reduce anxiety in women and develop their trust in others was developed and tested. The program used special techniques and instruments whose effectiveness was proved in practice.

Post-traumatic stress disorder as moderator of other mental healthconditions.

Post-traumatic stress disorder as moderator of other mental healthconditions.

Trust and distrust: Identifying recruitment targets for ethnic minority blood donors.

BackgroundWe explore the role of trust, distrust, and the prevailing socio‐political context to better understand why people from ethnic minority communities are less likely to be blood donors compared to people from White communities. Recruiting more ethnic minority donors will enhance representativeness, reduce inequality, and help meet the clinical need to increase the proportion of blood with Ro Kell antigen to treat Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).Study design and methodsA 2 (donor‐status: current donor; non‐donors) by 4 (ethnicity: People from Asian, Black, Mixed and White ethnic backgrounds) quasi‐experiment (N = 981) was conducted to examine perceptions of trust/distrust and their influence on willingness to donate blood, within the socio‐political context of the Windrush scandal and Brexit.ResultsWe identified five domains of trust (‘National Health Service [NHS] and staff,’ ‘NHS Blood and Transplant,’ ‘outgroups,’ ‘individuals’ and ‘politics’), and a single domain of conditional distrust domain. Trust across all the domains was lower, and ‘conditional distrust’ higher for ethnic minorities. Trust in ‘individuals’ and ‘NHSBT’ predicted willingness to donate in non‐donors from ethnic minorities and White non‐donors, respectively. Concerns about the Windrush scandal were related to lower political trust. Viewing Brexit as ‘positive for the UK’ was related to lower trust across domains and reduced willingness to donate in White non‐donors through its influence on reduced trust in NHSBT.ConclusionDistinct domains of trust and distrust are identified, and targeting ‘trust in others’ through conditional cooperation is recommended as a strategy to increase donor numbers from ethnic minority communities.

Victims of Known and Unknown Cyberstalkers: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample.

Cyberstalking is a behavior in which an individual, group, or organization uses information technology to harass one or more people, with possible consequences for the victims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of cyberstalking in terms of physical and emotional consequences, depression, anxiety symptoms, attitudes toward telling of cyberstalking experiences, and coping strategies, comparing young adult victims of known cyberstalkers with those harassed by strangers. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 689 individuals. Of these, 242 victims were included in the analysis: 115 victims of unknown (UC) and 127 of known cyberstalkers (KC). The results emphasize that victims of KC more often reported fatigue as a physical symptom and sadness and lack of trust in others as emotional symptoms. In addition, scores for depressive symptoms and anxiety did not differ significantly between the two groups, whereas significantly higher scores for trait anxiety were found among victims of KC. Finally, victims of KC were significantly more inclined to use alcohol and drugs, reduce social contact with friends, buy a weapon, and try to reason with the cyberstalker, while victims of UC were more inclined to block online contact and ask a social network administrator to intervene. Implications of the findings were discussed, such as the need to intervene immediately and to promote victims’ ability to seek help.

National Security, FDI and Economic Development in Nigeria

The issue of national security is one that cuts across every sector of economic growth and development. Security offers some degree of certainty which enables people to set goals and invest in their future and that of their children. It also encourages innovation, strengthens social connections and build trust in others and in institutions. The idea is that the more secured a nation is, the easier it is to carry out economic activities which further translates to economic development both local and international. This paper examines the prominent role national security plays in the area of foreign direct investment and economic development in Nigeria. The study aims at providing empirical evidence on the impact of national security on foreign direct investment and economic development in Nigeria. Ordinary least squares (OLS) technique was used in estimating the structural parameters in the equation, we conclude that insecurity is a threat to development because it produces economic stagnation. We recommend that government at all levels and key actors in policy formulation should adopt the culture of transparency such that funds allocated to the security sector are effectively utilized for equipping the security system to meet 21st century standard.

Trauma involving violation of trust and mental health help seeking among homeless adults

ABSTRACT Objective Lack of trust in others is a barrier to mental health help seeking and may be a consequence of trauma exposure, which is highly prevalent among people who experience homelessness. This study examined the association between trauma involving violation of trust and mental health help seeking. Method This study was a secondary analysis of data collected for a randomised controlled trial comparing a 3-year homelessness intervention with standard service provision. The sample included trauma-exposed adults with a history of chronic homelessness in Melbourne (N = 73). Participants identified their worst lifetime trauma and indicated whether someone they knew and trusted was responsible for that event. The primary outcome was 12-month formal mental health help seeking. Results Controlling for randomisation and baseline posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity, participants whose worst trauma involved violation of trust reported, on average, 4.34 times as many visits to an outpatient service (e.g., hospital, mental health facility, alcohol and other drug service) as those whose worst trauma did not involve a violation of trust, p = .002. Conclusions Contrary to expectation, chronically homeless adults whose worst trauma involved violation of trust sought outpatient care more than those whose worst trauma did not involve violation of trust. Mental health professionals should adopt a trauma-informed approach and be aware that trauma exposure may influence help seeking among people who experience chronic homelessness. Key Points What is already known about this topic: Chronically homeless adults have high rates of trauma exposure, trauma-related mental health disorders, and unmet mental health care needs. People experiencing homelessness face multiple barriers to accessing mental health care, and qualitative studies have found feelings of mistrust may be one such barrier. In the general population, interpersonal trauma, particularly trauma involving betrayal, is associated with reduced trust in others, including physicians and health care systems. What this topic adds: Over 12 months, greater outpatient service use was reported by chronically homeless adults whose worst trauma involved violation of trust compared to those whose worst trauma did not involve violation of trust. The violation of trust group included a higher percentage of Aboriginal persons, and a higher percentage of participants whose worst trauma occurred in childhood compared to the no violation of trust group. Mental health professionals, such as psychologists, should apply trauma-informed care principles when providing mental health care for chronically homeless adults.

Adult Daughters of Alcoholic Parents-A Qualitative Study of These Women's Pregnancy Experiences and the Potential Implications for Antenatal Care Provision.

The adult children of alcoholic parents are at increased risk of having health problems compared to the adult children of nonalcoholic parents. Little is known about how growing up with alcoholic parents affects women’s experiences when pregnant. The objectives of this study were to explore how adverse childhood experiences related to parental alcohol abuse affect women during their pregnancy and to assess the potential implications of women’s experiences for antenatal care provision. Twelve in-depth interviews were performed with women who were brought up by an alcoholic mother and/or father. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data. Two main categories were identified: ‘establishing relationships and having social support’ and ‘antenatal care encounters and concerns during pregnancy’. Women’s trust in others in adult life was impacted by their upbringing. Strained relationships with their parents and few friends meant that the women primarily relied on their partners for support. Neither antenatal care providers nor women talked about women’s childhood experiences at the visits. The women described concerns related to the baby’s health, lack of predictability and control during the pregnancy, as well as apprehensiveness regarding birth and motherhood. The potential implications for practice include systematic screening for adverse childhood experiences, antenatal preparation classes, parenting courses, and post-graduate training.

Curriculum Leadership of Rural Teachers: Status Quo, Influencing Factors and Improvement Mechanism-Based on a Large-Scale Survey of Rural Teachers in China.

Revealing the general status quo of teacher curriculum leadership has great theoretical, policy, and practical significance. However, large-scale empirical investigations in this area are rare, and there is even less attention to the current situation of rural teacher curriculum leadership. Based on the survey of 2,966 rural teachers in 20 provinces of China, this paper presented the status quo of rural teacher curriculum leadership and examined influencing factors through multiple linear regression analysis. It was found that curriculum leadership of rural teachers was at a low level with backward leadership views, lack of practical ability, and low sense of identity. Regression analysis demonstrated that individual field factors had a significant impact on teachers’ curriculum leadership. Specifically, the higher the teachers’ leadership willingness, trust in others, and self-efficacy, the higher the curriculum leadership. The school field was also an important influential aspect. In particular, the formation of a common vision and teacher community by the school and the appropriate empowerment of the principal had a significant positive impact on the curriculum leadership of rural teachers. Based on these key findings, several improvement suggestions are put forward at the end, which can be used as references for other countries to develop improvement plans on rural teacher curriculum leadership.

Historical Border Changes, State Building, and Contemporary Trust in Europe

Political borders profoundly influence outcomes central to international politics. Accordingly, a growing literature shows that historical boundaries affect important macro-outcomes such as patterns of interstate disputes and trade. To explain these findings, existing theories posit that borders have persistent effects on individual-level behavior, but the literature lacks empirical evidence of such effects. Combining spatial data on centuries of border changes in Europe with a wide range of contemporary survey evidence, we show that historical border changes have persistent effects on two of the most politically significant aspects of behavior: individuals’ political and social trust. We demonstrate that in areas where borders frequently changed, individuals are, on average, less trusting of others as well as their governments. We argue that this occurs because border changes disrupt historical state-building processes and limit the formation of interpersonal social networks, which leads to lower levels of trust.

Urban or Rural: Where are people happier and why?

Using data from a worldwide sample, we investigate how happy people look like and if these “happiness characteristics” are more present in big urban towns or in small rural villages. We found evidence that (i) people seem to be slightly happier in rural settlements, (ii) happier people have some particular characteristics (e.g., higher levels of trust in others and being more interested in politics) and (iii) these positive attitudes are slightly more present in rural contexts. Then, we discuss some conceivable explanations to what we have seen.

Natural calamity and cultural formation: A study on Yellow River flooding region

Traditional culture is usually regarded as the response to environmental change. In this paper, we tried to investigate the impact of natural calamity on the cultural formation by a case study of Yellow River flooding region (YRFR). Using national population censuses and Chinese General Social Survey data and the regression discontinuity design, we estimated the influence of YRFR on the formation of cultures, including gender norms, religious beliefs, and trust. The results suggested that inner YRFR residents preferred boys than girls, believed in religions but repelled foreign religions, and lacked the trust in others in spite of their more trust on governmental organizations. Finally, we conducted robustness checks and discussed the possible influencing paths.

Comments: Climate Change Ambitions vs. Actions

A recent Deloitte survey of 2,000 C-level executives about sustainability in their businesses was published with the tagline, “The disconnect between ambition and impact.” Execs, of whom 20% were involved in “energy, resources, and industrials,” have become more concerned about climate over the past few months but are in many cases picking the low-hanging fruit when it comes to demonstrating a real commitment to make effective changes. Eighty-eight percent agreed that with immediate action, the worst impacts of climate change could be limited. Just 8 months ago, in a similar Deloitte survey, 63% agreed. Bear in mind the pressure to act from their stakeholders also has and continues to escalate. Stakeholders were categorized as regulators/government, board members/management, consumers/clients, civil society (media, activists), shareholders/investors, competitors/peers, employees, and banks/lenders. Yet, the top actions taken by the companies were “easy” ones. For example, using more sustainable materials (67%) vs. developing new climate-friendly products or services (49%), increasing the efficiency of energy use (e.g., in buildings) (66%) vs. requiring suppliers and business partners to meet specific criteria (46%), and reducing air travel post-pandemic (55%) vs. tying execs’ compensation to environmental sustainability performance (37%). Deloitte termed the more difficult actions as “needle-moving.” In each example, the easy actions topped the hard ones by about 20%. Obstacles to moving the needle included difficulty measuring environmental impact and insufficient supply of sustainable or low-emissions inputs, listed by nearly a third and 27%, respectively. Cost was identified by 27%. Deloitte wondered if these were real obstacles, or just low priorities, and added that “many companies may be struggling to translate the cost of climate inaction.” However, the survey results suggest that cost may not be the overriding concern. Rather, the measurement of improvement is not yet well defined, and the availability of and/or access to proven, dependable lower-emissions technology is lagging. Sarah Chapman, global chief sustainability officer at financial services provider Manulife, commented in the survey, “Measurement and disclosure are complicated partially because there isn’t one standardization or framework. Understanding our Scope 3 emissions within our investment portfolio is challenging because we rely either on other companies’ reporting or on estimations.” She makes a valid point—the US Environmental Protection Agency describes 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions, which include emissions both upstream and downstream of an organization’s activities. The Scope 3 emissions for one organization are the Scope 1 and 2 emissions of another organization. That requires a great deal of trust in others’ transparency and honesty, or even their understanding and ability to accurately report. Consider the easy, low-hanging fruit as the first attempts to test the needle’s movement. Standardization of science-based measurement and disclosure, transparency, and proven technology may well be the trifecta that pushes the needle in the direction of tackling the hard changes needed in valid, meaningful ways.

Developmental Relations between Children’s Peer Relationship Quality and Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Trust

Positive peer relationships are important for children’s prosocial development, yet the mechanisms that explain how peers contribute to prosocial outcomes during the preschool and early school years remain understudied. The present study used a prospective longitudinal design to examine whether children’s degree of trust in others mediated the association between prior peer relationship quality and later prosocial behavior in a Canadian sample (N = 150; T1 M age = 4.53 years, 50% female). Primary caregivers (84% mothers) reported on children’s peer relationship quality (at age 4), trust in others (ages 4 and 5), and prosocial behavior (ages 4 and 6). Controlling for initial levels of trust and prosocial behavior at age 4, longitudinal path modeling indicated that higher quality peer relationships directly predicted relative increases in trust at age 5. In turn, increased trust at age 5 predicted relative increases in prosocial behavior at age 6. Consistent with longitudinal mediation, the indirect effect of peer relationship quality on later prosocial behavior via trust was also significant. Sensitivity analyses further indicated that these effects held over and above the potential confounding influence of parental warmth and externalizing behavioral problems (assessed at age 6). Programs designed to promote prosocial skills in early childhood may benefit from an increased emphasis on building and maintaining children’s interpersonal trust.

Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Is a Possible Blood Biomarker of Schizoid Personality Traits among Females.

Lower serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) have been suggested to indicate higher suicide risk and various psychiatric symptoms. Previously, we reported that lower serum LDL-C levels are associated with loneliness, social phobia, isolated life with little social support, and lower trust in others among young non-clinical females. Thus, we hypothesize that schizoid personality traits may be associated with lower serum LDL-C. We here verified this hypothesis using non-clinical data and clinical data with schizophrenia. Using the database from the Midlife in Japan (MIDJA), a cohort of residents living in Tokyo, we analyzed whether schizoid-related interpersonal characteristics were associated with LDL-C. In addition, we assessed the association between blood biomarkers including LDL-C and schizoid personality traits in 101 adult non-clinical volunteers. Finally, we evaluated the interaction between LDL-C and social decision making of patients with schizophrenia. In female non-clinical volunteers, serum LDL-C level was a predictive factor and negatively correlated with schizoid personality traits. Female patients with schizophrenia, whose serum LDL-C levels were lower, tended not to trust other females. The present findings suggest that LDL-C may influence schizoid personality traits in females, which provide a basis for further investigation into the biological aspects of schizoid personality disorder.

Conspiracy beliefs and vaccination intent for COVID-19 in an infodemic.

BackgroundThe massive, free and unrestricted exchange of information on the social media during the Covid-19 pandemic has set fertile grounds for fear, uncertainty and the rise of fake news related to the virus. This “viral” spread of fake news created an “infodemic” that threatened the compliance with public health guidelines and recommendations.ObjectiveThis study aims to describe the trust in social media platforms and the exposure to fake news about COVID-19 in Lebanon and to explore their association with vaccination intent.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study conducted in Lebanon during July–August, 2020, a random sample of 1052 participants selected from a mobile-phone database responded to an anonymous structured questionnaire after obtaining informed consent (response rate = 40%). The questionnaire was conducted by telephone and measured socio-demographics, sources and trust in sources of information and exposure to fake news, social media activity, perceived threat and vaccination intent.ResultsResults indicated that the majority of participants (82%) believed that COVID-19 is a threat and 52% had intention to vaccinate. Exposure to fake/ unverified news was high (19.7% were often and 63.8% were sometimes exposed, mainly to fake news shared through Watsapp and Facebook). Trust in certain information sources (WHO, MoPH and TV) increased while trust in others (Watsapp, Facebook) reduced vaccination intent against Covid-19. Believing in the man-made theory and the business control theory significantly reduced the likelihood of vaccination intent (Beta = 0.43; p = 0.01 and Beta = -0.29; p = 0.05) respectively.ConclusionIn the context of the infodemic, understanding the role of exposure to fake news and of conspiracy believes in shaping healthy behavior is important for increasing vaccination intent and planning adequate response to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of youth in Poland

Background: The development of civil society is based on dialogue and participation. Young people are characterized by low interest in social activity and building a civil society, therefore it seems crucial to look at what education for participation looks like. 
 Objectives: The authors considered the issue of dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of young Poles. The authors drew attention to the forms and importance of civic dialogue, as well as diagnosed the goals, functions and deficits of civic education.
 Methodology: The topic was presented on the basis of the literature on the subject, the results of sociological research and hard data on the forms and scale of civic involvement in Poland, especially in Warsaw. Data analysis in the form of desk research was used.
 Results: Research by CBOS and KBPN shows that only 40% of young people who could take part in the 2018 elections for the first time in their lives intended to exercise their right. Also in the parliamentary elections in 2019, the youngest eligible respondents voted least frequently. Young Poles significantly less often than adults in general show involvement in the affairs of the local community, and are also characterized by an above-average lack of trust in others and increasing individualism. 
 Conclusions: Civic involvement of young Poles and their participation in building a civic society are low and are accompanied by a high level of individualism combined with a lack of trust in others. Therefore, a more effective education for participation seems to be of key importance. Examples of good practice in this area, although still carried out on a small scale, are classes conducted for students in the field of public transport and tools for social participation developed and used by some local governments, such as the Civic Budget or Local Initiative.

Trust Predicts Compliance with Covid-19 Containment Policies: Evidence from Ten Countries Using Big Data

Previous evidence indicates that trust is an important correlate of compliance with Covid-19 containment policies. However, this conclusion hinges on two crucial assumptions: first, that compliance does not change over time, and second, that mobility and self-reported measures are good proxies for compliance. We demonstrate that compliance changes over the period March 2020 to January 2021, in ten mostly European countries, and that increasing (decreasing) trust in others predicts increasing (decreasing) compliance. We develop the first time-varying measure of compliance, which is calculated as the association between containment policies and people’s mobility behavior using data from Oxford Policy Tracker and Google. We also develop new measures of both trust in others and national institutions by applying sentiment analysis to Twitter data. We test the predictive role of trust using a variety of dynamic panel regression techniques. This evidence indicates compliance should not be taken for granted and confirms the importance of cultivating social trust.

Trust as a daily defense against collective disease threats

Although the isolated threat of disease often motivates people to avoid others, people need the help and cooperation of others to protect themselves against pandemic disease threats. Therefore, the fear of contracting a highly contagious virus like COVID-19 should motivate people to believe that they can in fact count on the help and cooperation of others for protection. Trusting in others provides the basis to anticipate their cooperation. Therefore, we expected a greater daily threat of contracting COVID-19 to motivate people to trust more in others, providing needed assurance that others would keep them safe from harm. We obtained 4 daily diary samples involving 2794 participants who provided in excess of 18,000 daily observations within the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day, we tracked (1) disease threat, captured daily by personal concerns about COVID-19 and infection totals in the nearest most populous city, and (2) trust in others, captured daily by expressions of trust in intimates, collective caregivers (e.g., President, Congress), and strangers. Participants in two samples completed 2-month follow-ups. Integrative analyses of the daily diaries revealed that people trusted more in intimates and collective caregivers on days they had greater (vs. less) reason to be concerned about COVID-19. Further integrative analyses of the follow-up data revealed that participants who were initially more likely to trust in others on days when COVID-19 cases in nearby communities spread more rapidly later reported greater confidence that others would keep them safe from harm. That is, they evidenced greater physical, interpersonal, and collective security in social connection than participants who were initially less likely to defensively trust in others on such occasions. The present findings suggest that ecological threats may dynamically motivate people to trust others more than they otherwise would, providing optimism that collectively-faced crises may motivate social cooperation when it is most needed.

Intervention by Separation and Reunification of Victims of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

This study aims to analyze the impact of the intervention method by separating and reunifications children as victims of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy against their parents as perpetrators of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. The subjects of this study were 9 expert figures with different backgrounds and several previous research journals as references. This research uses interpretative analysis by using an unstructured interview method and journal review for secondary data. After the data is collected completely and thoroughly, both from primary and secondary data collection, the data can be grouped or adjusted according to the type of data obtained from interviews with research subjects and previous research based on the journals. The results showed that the separation intervention is still one of the intervention methods used for victims of child abuse. However, this intervention can also cause deep psychological wounds in children due to being separated from their parents, where the trauma from the separation will greatly affect the psychological development of children in terms of their trust in others. Apart from that, reunification is still very possible, but the possibility of repeated acts of violence is also quite high. Continued and prolonged counseling is needed to minimize these negative impacts however, this follow-up step is still difficult to do, especially in Indonesia due to the lack of human resources from related institutions or agencies.