People’s trust in each other and confidence in society’s institutions has declined, especially in the last decade, possibly due to economic disparity, according to a new study led by a San Diego State University professor.
Jean Twenge, also an author, used data from two national surveys that represent responses from nearly 140,000 people.
“Compared to Americans in the 1970s-2000s, Americans in the last few years are less likely to say they can trust others, and are less likely to believe that institutions such as government, the press, religious organizations, schools and large corporations are doing a good job,” Twenge said.
The psychology professor said a recent rise in poverty and income inequality appears to be connected with the downward trend in public trust.
Twenge and University of Georgia professors W. Keith Campbell and Nathan Carter studied responses to the General Social Survey of adults, from 1972 to 2012, and the Monitoring the Future poll of 12th graders, from 1976-2012.
From 1972 to 1974, 46 percent of adults agreed that most people could be trusted. By 2010-12, only 33 percent felt that way.
In the first three years of the survey of high school seniors, 32 percent believed most people could be trusted. In the most recent three years, that figure was down to 18 percent.
Confidence in societal institutions went up and down over time but hit its lowest point early this decade, according to Twenge’s study. She said the only individual institution that Americans feel better about is the military.
The researchers also found that the proportion of 12th graders who reported that they had no opinion on institutional confidence questions rose steadily from the 1970s to the 2010s. Twenge and colleagues said the trend may reflect a decline in civic engagement and a lack of social capital.
“Young people today are more optimistic about their own prospects, but are apparently deeply distrustful of other people and large institutions,” Twenge said. “Adults show these trends as well, suggesting that these attitudes are a product of the times and not necessarily a permanent generational shift.”
Twenge is the author of “Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable than Ever Before” and “The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.”
Her study was is scheduled to be published later this month in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
– City News Service
Editor’s note: Featured image from user Barret Anspach via Twitter.
