The extension of particularized trust to generalized and out-group trust: The constraining role of collectivism

Abstract

A central line of inquiry into the sources of generalized trust concerns how particularized trust (trust in known others) extends to generalized trust (default expectations about the trustworthiness of people in general). While we know that there is considerable cross-national variability in the strength of the relationship between particularized and generalized trust, little is known about the contextual factors that shape the degree to which particularized trust spills over to more diffuse forms of trust.We argue that collectivism plays a key role in the extension of trust. The nature of social interactions in low collectivism societies is conducive to the trust and distrust built up within social interactions extending to generalized and out-group trust, whereas high levels of collectivism should dampen the ability of particularized trust to extend. Analyzing data on over 52,000 respondents from 39 countries from Waves 5 and 6 of the World Values Survey, we find that the predicted effects particularized trust on generalized and out-group trust are substantially smaller in more collectivist countries. Our results also suggest that collectivism and individualism matter more for generalized and out-group trust for individualswho have higher levels of particularized trust.