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The Moral Foundations of Trust

Open access
Uslaner, Eric M.·2002·SSRN Electronic Journal
DOI 10.2139/ssrn.824504
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Abstract

This paper summarizes my book from Cambridge University Press (2002) with the same title. Trust is a multifacted concept. Mostly it is conceived as a rational response to trustworthy behavior by others. I offer an argument and evidence that there is another and more important variant of trust, moralistic (generalized) trust. I show that moralistic trust is faith in people we don't know and that it does not depend upon our life experiences. It is this type of trust that binds us to others. Trusting people are more likely to volunteer their time, to give to charity, to be tolerant of others, and to support policies that both promote economic growth (open markets) and that provide support for the less fortunate. Countries with more trusters have better functioning government, more redistributive policies, more open markets, and less corruption. What distinguishes countries that are trusting from those that are not is the level of economic equality.

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Research works printed but not linked: 47

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  45. ., 1998, 14. The surveys I employ are the General Social Survey (and especially the 1987 sample); the 1972 and 1992 American National Election Studies (ANES); the 1996 Trust and Civic Participation Survey in Metropolitan Philadelphia by the Pew Center for the People and the Press; the Niemi-Jennings socialization study of values held by high school students and their parents in 1965 (with further waves in 1973 and 1982); the 1978 Quality of Life survey from the Survey Research Center; and the 1971 pilot study of Economic Incentives, Values, and Subjective Well-Being conducted by the Survey
  46. GSS. I also estimated SUR models for racist and atheist tolerance measures from the GSS
  47. See Uslaner, 2002, 10.1017/cbo9780511614934 · DOI

Cited by

Metadata

Authors
Uslaner, E. M.
Venue
SSRN Electronic Journal
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2002
ISSN
1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.824504
OpenAlex
W1560718776
Cited by
2,042
References
1
Type
posted content
Language
en
Open access
green

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