Abstract
There are at least two competing views on the foundations of generalised trust: experiential and cultural. The experiential perspective emphasises that trust is fragile and remains open to environmental influences throughout life, whilst the cultural perspective asserts that trust is a stable trait established early in pre-adult life through intergenerational transmission mechanisms. Utilising an innovative methodology applied to a major UK longitudinal survey, this article tests these alternative accounts by analysing the persistence of generalised trust throughout the life-course. In support of the cultural perspective, trust is found to be a relatively stable, persistent human trait. Whilst generalised trust is open to change, these changes are however temporary with an overriding tendency for individuals to revert back to their initial, long-term level. Greater emphasis should be placed on the establishment of initial, pre-adult trust, as changes induced by post-childhood environmental forces are likely to be prone to rapid decay.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
