Trusting the State, Trusting Each Other? The Effect of Institutional Trust on Social Trust

Trust in state institutions is a prominent explanation of social trust. However, previous—mainly cross-sectional—analyses provide limited causal evidence regarding the relationship between institutional trust and social trust and it is thus essentially unknown whether an observed relationship reflec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political behavior 2016-03, Vol.38 (1), p.179-202
Main Authors: Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar, Dinesen, Peter Thisted
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooperation
Institutions
Original Paper
Panel data
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Politics
Public opinion
Sociology
Trust
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Trust in state institutions is a prominent explanation of social trust. However, previous—mainly cross-sectional—analyses provide limited causal evidence regarding the relationship between institutional trust and social trust and it is thus essentially unknown whether an observed relationship reflects reverse causality (social trust forming institutional trust), or both forms of trust reflecting deep-seated dispositions (common confounding). Against the backdrop of the shortcomings of previous cross-sectional analyses, this paper utilizes two Danish panel surveys containing measures of both types of trust for the same individuals surveyed at multiple points in time over a long time-span (up to 18 years) to address the potentially reverse and/or spurious relationship. Using individual fixed effects and cross-lagged panel models, the results provide strong evidence of trust in state institutions exercising a causal impact on social trust, whereas the evidence for a reverse relationship is limited.
ISSN:0190-9320
1573-6687
DOI:10.1007/s11109-015-9322-8