Americans embrace caution and collaboration as personal strategies, but split on trust vs. skepticism | Pew Research Center

July 18, 2019

2. The state of personal trust

Americans embrace caution and collaboration as personal strategies, but split on trust vs. skepticism

Americans embrace caution and collaboration as personal strategies, but split on trust vs. skepticism

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Americans embrace caution and collaboration as personal strategies, but split on trust vs. skepticism

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2. The state of personal trust
Americans are worried about the declining level of trust citizens have in each other
Those who think interpersonal trust has declined cite social ills, personal behavior and government problems among the reasons
Those most concerned about state of interpersonal trust worry about social breakdown, polarized politics
Components of the personal trust scale: Are people trustworthy, fair, helpful?
Nonwhites, those under 50 and those with less education/income more likely to be low trusters
Those with high personal trust have higher confidence in key leadership groups
Americans embrace caution and collaboration as personal strategies, but split on trust vs. skepticism
Many Americans have confidence in others to do the right thing in civic life at times, but not always
Low trusters and high trusters have sharply different confidence levels in how Americans will behave in key civic situations
The generation gap is large when it comes to views on respecting others, helping those in need, accepting elections
Those with low interpersonal trust have less hope in key parts of public life