The DOI matches its Crossref record; 62 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Predicting Cross-National Levels of Social Trust: Global Pattern or Nordic Exceptionalism?
Abstract
This analysis of variations in the level of generalized social trust (defined here as the belief that others will not deliberately or knowingly do us harm, if they can avoid it, and will look after our interests, if this is possible) in 60 nations of the world shows that trust is an integral part of a tight syndrome of social, political and economic conditions. High trust countries are characterized by ethnic homogeneity, Protestant religious traditions, good government, wealth (gross domestic product per capita), and income equality. This combination is most marked in the high trust Nordic countries but the same general pattern is found in the remaining 55 countries, albeit in a weaker form. Rural societies have comparatively low levels of generalized trust but large-scale urban societies do not. Cause and effect relations are impossible to specify exactly but ethnic homogeneity and Protestant traditions seem to have a direct impact on trust, and an indirect one through their consequences for good government, wealth and income equality. The importance of ethnic homogeneity also suggests that the difference between particularized and generalized trust may be one of degree rather than kind.
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“Since social trust largely rests upon perceived similarities and a sense of familiarity, religious diversity may lead to a decrease in regional trust levels”
From Moral Communities? Religion as a Source of Social Trust in a Multilevel Analysis of 97 German Regions (2011) · cites this paper as Delhey and Newton, 2005
In the citing paper
“the confounding effects of religious traditions and political institutions on social trust (Delhey and Newton, 2005) are elegantly disentangled in our case by holding the latter constant.”
From Moral Communities? Religion as a Source of Social Trust in a Multilevel Analysis of 97 German Regions (2011) · cites this paper as Delhey and Newton, 2005
In the citing paper
“greater ethnic heterogeneity seems to be associated with lower stocks of social capital”
From Moral Communities? Religion as a Source of Social Trust in a Multilevel Analysis of 97 German Regions (2011) · cites this paper as Delhey and Newton, 2005
In the citing paper
“Our results are similar to those of Delhey and Newton (2005) and Dincer and Wang (2011) in that they show that in going from complete ethnic homogeneity to complete ethnic heterogeneity, financial development is sharply reduced.”
From Diversity Matters in the World of Finance: Does Ethnic and Religious Diversity Hinder Financial Development in Developing Countries? (2025) · cites this paper as Delhey and Newton 2005
In the citing paper
“Protestantism, which played a prominent role in Nordic history”
From Trust, transparency, and openness: How inclusion of cultural values shapes Nordic national public policy strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) (2020) · cites this paper as [33]
In the citing paper
“imbued societal interactions with a nonhierarchical quality that allowed social trust to flourish [33,34]”
From Trust, transparency, and openness: How inclusion of cultural values shapes Nordic national public policy strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) (2020) · cites this paper as [33]
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“.”
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“The low levels of corruption and historical high levels of trust (Delhey & Newton, 2005) make this case least likely to solely capture the effects of petty corruption, and most likely to capture additional mechanisms that might mitigate trust.”
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ResultRobbins, B. G. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059511 · Cited by 3
“I then aggregated generalized trust responses to create a measure of the proportion of respondents – multiplied by 100– who said that most people can be trusted (ranging from 0 to 100) when asked the following question: ‘‘Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very car…”
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Social Capital and the Labor MarketPreprint
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“Kydd (2000) and Delhey and Newton (2005) suggest that the behavior of public institutions signals to citizens about the moral standard of the society in which they live, thereby informing their behavior in everyday strategic interactions.”
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“Cultural arguments about East Asia in particular have focused on collectivism over individual-ism and respect if not deference for authority, with Confucian values emphasizing trust (Delhey and Newton, 2005).”
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Faulkner, P. (2025) · doi:10.1093/9780191999284.001.0001 · Cited by 2
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“Government Trust, Social Trust, and CSR Delhey and Newton (2005), in a cross-national study of 60 countries, find a significant positive correlation between social trust and trust in government.”
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“…to the development of social and cognitive skills that promote acceptance among different segments of the population [e.g. Glaeser et al. (2000) and Delhey and Newton (2005)].13 With the purpose of introducing these ideas into our model, we shall now assume that the average level of income per…”
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“Finally, social trust was tapped with a single item, namely the percentage of people saying that “most people can be trusted”, which is one of the most often used indicators of social trust (Delhey & Newton, 2005).”
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Predictors of Generalized Trust: A Cross-Cultural Study of Canada, China, Taiwan, and the US
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“Lower levels of generalized trust are found in societies that have greater income inequality (Ulsaner, 2002), are highly polarized, are more diverse in religion (Bjørnskov, 2007), and ethnicity (Delhey & Newton, 2005).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Delhey, J., & Newton, K.
- Affiliations
- WZB Berlin Social Science Center (DE)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- ORCID
- Delhey, Jan
- Venue
- European Sociological Review
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2005-06-06
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 311-327
- ISSN
- 0266-7215 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-2672
- OpenAlex
- W2062841522
- Semantic Scholar
- a6d11bebc50daf14e2d5b9849ca4dc9cdd5d05f9
- Cited by
- 1,267
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 90 · 2021: 102 · 2020: 99 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 74 · 2017: 69 · 2016: 67 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 80 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 55
- FWCI
- 68.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Capital and Networks
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
- Keywords
- generalized trust, cross-national variation, ethnic homogeneity, Protestantism, good government, wealth, income equality, urbanization, particularized trust, Nordic exceptionalism, determinants of trust
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