Social Trust, Pattern of Difference, and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Based on the pattern of difference in Chinese social trust, this study classifies the social trust into trust in family members, trust in acquaintances, and trust in strangers. Then, the correlational relationship between different types of social trust and subjective well-being is examined using the micro survey data in China. It is found that different types of social trust vary greatly in the correlation with subjective well-being. The main findings are as follows: (a) Trust in family members has no significant correlation with subjective well-being; (b) Only “totally trust acquaintances” has a significant positive correlation with subjective well-being; (c) Trust in strangers has a significant positive correlation with subjective well-being—the higher the trust level, the stronger the correlation with subjective well-being will be—and (d) Urban–rural and male–female differences exist in the correlational relationship between trust in strangers and subjective well-being.