Radical Distrust: Are Economic Policy Attitudes Tempered by Social Trust?

Debates about the appropriate role of markets and governments are often shaped by sharply contrasting opinions. Based on individual data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study for up to 190,000 respondents in a sample of 68 democratic countries, we find that social trust is assoc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social indicators research 2021-12, Vol.158 (2), p.485-506
Main Authors: Pitlik, Hans, Rode, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic policy
Human Geography
Microeconomics
Moderation
Original Research
Personality
Polarization
Political attitudes
Political polarization
Psychological research
Public Health
Quality of Life Research
Radicalism
Redistribution
Respondents
Social attitudes
Social Sciences
Sociology
State intervention
Trust
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Summary:Debates about the appropriate role of markets and governments are often shaped by sharply contrasting opinions. Based on individual data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study for up to 190,000 respondents in a sample of 68 democratic countries, we find that social trust is associated with tempered attitudes regarding government intervention and redistribution. Results corroborate ideas from socio-psychological research that trusting people have personality attributes which work towards a moderation on politically divisive topics. Complementary to the literature on political polarization, this opens the possibility that trusting societies may be superior at adapting polices to novel challenges because social trust reduces the probability of extreme attitude formation.
ISSN:0303-8300
1573-0921
DOI:10.1007/s11205-020-02317-8