Is Trust in Others Declining in America? An Age–Period–Cohort Analysis

doi:10.1006/ssre.2000.0692

Social Science Research

Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2001, Pages 117-145

https://doi.org/10.1006/ssre.2000.0692 Get rights and content

Abstract

Analyzing survey data for the United States from 1972 to 1998, we assess the claim of Robert Putnam and others that interpersonal trust in America has eroded in recent decades. We examine changes in trust by attempting to estimate age, period, and cohort effects. We find a nonlinear aging effect: Trust is lowest among the youngest Americans, increases up to middle age, and then levels off. We also find over-time decreases in U.S. trust. These may stem from a nonlinear cohort effect: Generations born up to the 1940s exhibit high levels of trust, but each generation born after that is less trusting than the one before. We argue that some of the over-time decline might also stem from an age-specific period effect: Beginning in the 1980s the trust of young and middle-aged Americans declined steadily. We note that if successive generations continue to be less and less trusting, then through a process of cohort replacement U.S. society will become pervaded by mistrust.

References (42)

T.W. Smith
Factors relating to misanthropy in contemporary American society
Social Science Research
(1997)
G.A. Almond et al.
The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations
(1963)
B. Barber
The Logic and Limits of Trust
(1983)
J. Brehm et al.
Individual-level evidence for the causes and consequences of social capital
American Journal of Political Science
(1997)
J.S. Coleman
Social capital in the creation of human capital
American Journal of Sociology
(1988)
J.S. Coleman
Foundations of Social Theory
(1990)
P.E. Converse
The Dynamics of Party Support: Cohort-Analyzing Party Identification
(1976)
R.F. Curtis et al.
Inequality in American Communities
(1977)
M. Deutsch
Cooperation and trust: Some theoretical notes
S.E. Fienberg et al.
Identification and estimation of age–period–cohort models in the analysis of discrete archival data

S.E. Fienberg et al.

Specification and implementation of age, period, and cohort models

F. Fukuyama

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

(1995)

F. Fukuyama

The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

(1999)

A. Giddens

The Consequences of Modernity

(1990)

N.D. Glenn

Cohort analysts' futile quest: Statistical attempts to separate age, period, and cohort effects

American Sociological Review

(1976)

N.D. Glenn

Cohort Analysis

(1977)

N.D. Glenn

Age, birth cohorts, and drinking: An illustration of the hazards of inferring effects from cohort data

Journal of Gerontology

(1981)

N.D. Glenn

A caution about mechanical solutions to the identification problem in cohort analysis: Comment on Sasaki and Suzuki

American Journal of Sociology

(1989)

N.D. Glenn

A flawed approach to solving the identification problem in the estimation of mobility effect models: A comment on Brody and McRae

Social Forces

(1989)

N.D. Glenn

Further discussion of the evidence for an intercohort decline in education-adjusted vocabulary

American Sociological Review

(1999)

Cited by (203)

Changes in risk attitudes vary across domains throughout the life course
2023, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Risk attitudes are important predictors of various economic decisions and socioeconomic outcomes. Although studies show that peoples’ general willingness to take risks decreases with age, there are few reports on the age dependence of domain-specific risk attitudes. Drawing on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this study employs a proxy variable approach to disentangle age from periodic and cohort effects, while allowing the age effect to take a flexible functional form. Our analyses indicate that risk attitudes are domain-specific. Additionally, we show that age-profiles of general rather than domain-specific risk attitudes can lead to misleading results when they are used to predict life outcomes.
Measuring particularized trust: A name generator approach
2023, Social Networks
In the social sciences, trust scholars largely divide their interests between two streams of research: one on generalized trust and one on particularized trust. While recent developments in the measurement of generalized trust have pushed the literature forward, similar improvements to the measurement of particularized trust have lagged behind. In this article, I advance trust research by (1) developing an egocentric particularized trust (EPT) instrument based on a multiple name generator approach, and (2) assessing EPT’s empirical performance across numerous psychometric tests. Results from a general population quota sample (N = 2041) indicate that EPT consists of two separate latent constructs, one for personally known others (EPT-K) and one for family members (EPT-F). Using traditional measures of particularized trust as benchmarks, I find that EPT-K and EPT-F provide the most valid and reliable measures of particularized trust. I conclude by discussing implications and directions for future research.
The effect of cultural values and institutional trust on public perceptions of government use of network surveillance
2022, Technology in Society
Previous studies indicate that attitudes toward implementing government surveillance systems to collect personal information are affected by privacy concerns, perceived impacts and need, effectiveness of the system, and transparency in the process. Few studies examine how orientations toward individualism and collectivism might affect attitudes and the extent to which trust in institutions moderates attitudes. This study posits and tests an explanatory model to investigate the extent to which institutional trust and cultural values of individualism and collectivism affect support for surveillance systems. The results, based upon a U.S. nationwide survey, show that individualism and collectivism intensify concerns about personal privacy and social justice. Further, institutional trust not only has a positive effect on perceived social justice, but moderates views consistent with surveillance and further enhances support for using surveillance. Implications of the findings are reviewed with respect to understanding public support for government use of network surveillance.
Once they are seated: The impact of radical right parties'political representation on attitudes of trust and solidarity
2023, European Political Science Review
A Distinct Society? Understanding Social Distrust in Quebec
2022, Canadian Journal of Political Science
Is Beard the Male Makeup? An Experimental Study on Trust Perception Based on Appearance
2024, SSRN

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: We thank John Brehm, Walter Gantz, David Heise, Scott Long, Tom W. Smith, and the anonymous reviewers of Social Science Research for their helpful advice. The authors are responsible for all errors in analysis and interpretation. An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meetings of the Pacific Sociological Society, San Diego, California, April, 1997.

^☆☆: Address correspondence and reprint requests to Robert V. Robinson, Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 744, 1020 East Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405-7103. E-mail: [email protected].

View full text

Regular ArticleIs Trust in Others Declining in America? An Age–Period–Cohort Analysis☆,☆☆

Abstract

Social Science Research

The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations

The Logic and Limits of Trust

Individual-level evidence for the causes and consequences of social capital

American Journal of Political Science

Social capital in the creation of human capital

American Journal of Sociology

Foundations of Social Theory

The Dynamics of Party Support: Cohort-Analyzing Party Identification

Inequality in American Communities

Cooperation and trust: Some theoretical notes

Identification and estimation of age–period–cohort models in the analysis of discrete archival data

Specification and implementation of age, period, and cohort models

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

The Consequences of Modernity

Cohort analysts' futile quest: Statistical attempts to separate age, period, and cohort effects

American Sociological Review

Cohort Analysis

Age, birth cohorts, and drinking: An illustration of the hazards of inferring effects from cohort data

Journal of Gerontology

A caution about mechanical solutions to the identification problem in cohort analysis: Comment on Sasaki and Suzuki

American Journal of Sociology

A flawed approach to solving the identification problem in the estimation of mobility effect models: A comment on Brody and McRae

Social Forces

Further discussion of the evidence for an intercohort decline in education-adjusted vocabulary

American Sociological Review

Regular Article
Is Trust in Others Declining in America? An Age–Period–Cohort Analysis☆,☆☆