Cross-national trust comparisons measure different questions in each society

Evidence

If we compare across nations, we find lower levels of reported generalized trust in some societies than in the United States. What questions are people in the United States answering when they say they trust most people? What questions are those in certain other societies answering when they say they do not trust most people? Evidently, we are answering different questions, perhaps because we are differentially alert to the problem of dealing with those with whom we do not have ongoing relationships or perhaps because our background institutional structures differ in the scope of the interactions they protect. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 797

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Undermines Fukuyama’s cross-cultural trust rankings; connects to the reader’s institutional-structure thread and the blindness novel’s point that institutions, not sentiment, scaffold trust.

Related

• Cross-national trust gaps reflect question-framing differences, not real trust levels. (similarity 0.90)
• Generalized trust is closer to expectation than to relationship-specific trust (similarity 0.82)
• Survey measures of generalized trust are misdescribed artifacts of vague questions. (similarity 0.82)
• Generalized trust is defined as unspecific trust in strangers (similarity 0.81)
• Imprecise survey questions manufacture the illusion of generalized trust (similarity 0.80)
• Standard survey measures of generalized trust actually gauge perceived decency, not trust (similarity 0.80)
• Survey claims of generalized trust conceal strict contextual limits (similarity 0.79)
• Survey trust questions conflate encapsulated-interest trust with generalized trust. (similarity 0.79)
• Apparent trust differences are often just differential risk-taking and learning speed (similarity 0.79)
• Generalized trust actually operates with scoped contextual constraints (similarity 0.79)
• Global trust in religion far exceeds trust in government (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Imprecise survey questions manufacture the illusion of generalized trust #corroborates (0.80) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 317
• Survey questions intended as cynicism scales get reinterpreted as trust measures #corroborates (0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 897
• Survey items on generalized trust necessarily restrict the range of trustable matters #expands (0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 890