Working Paper: NBER ID: w7621
Authors: Alberto Alesina; Eliana La Ferrara
Abstract: Both individual experiences and community characteristics influence how much people trust each other. Using data drawn from US localities we find that the strongest factors that reduce trust are: i) a recent history of traumatic experiences, even though the passage of time reduces this effect fairly rapidly; ii) belonging to a group that historically felt discriminated against, such as minorities (black in particular) and, to a lesser extent, women; iii) being economically unsuccessful in terms of income and education; iv) living in a racially mixed community and/or in one with a high degree of income disparity. Religious beliefs and ethnic origins do not significantly affect trust. The latter result may be an indication that the American melting pot at least up to a point works, in terms of homogenizing attitudes of different cultures, even though racial cleavages leading to low trust are still quite high.
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Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Recent traumatic experiences (E71) | Reduced trust (D80) |
| Passage of time (C41) | Mitigation of reduced trust (Z13) |
| Belonging to historically discriminated groups (J15) | Lower trust levels (Z13) |
| Economic success (P17) | Higher trust levels (Z13) |
| Living in racially mixed or economically unequal communities (R23) | Lower trust (Z13) |
| Religious beliefs and ethnic origins (J15) | Trust levels (Z13) |