Trust Fall: Patterns 和 Prospective Futures in General Trust

Declining general trust is a puzzle yet to receive the attention it warrants. Previous studies have examined other angles such as trust’s relationship with anxiety, validity of general trust measures, 和 trust’s prediction power for other behaviors, but little has been done to plot or explain fluctuations in trust over time despite this being reflective of critical attitudes towards others/society. This in-progress exploratory study uses General Social Survey (GSS) 和 World 值 Survey (WVS) data from 1972-2022 to analyze trends in general trust for the US by individual characteristics 和 for the globe.

Preliminary results suggest majority identities report higher trust more often amid overall downward trends of similar rates in both the US 和 the world. This informs future approaches to fostering trust by identifying attention areas, opens doors for further study, 和 contributes to a wider discussion about data-informed decisions in psychology by questioning responses’ logical basis.