TY - JOUR
T1 - Moral opinion polarization and the erosion of trust
AU - Rapp, Carolin
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - Since Puntam's seminal work on declining levels of social capital, the question of how social trust is formed has reached unprecedented heights of critical enquiry. While most of the current research concentrates on ethnic diversity and income inequality as the main influences driving down generalized trust, we focus on opinion polarization as another potential impact factor on trust. In more detail, we investigate the extent to which polarization over morally charged issues such as homsexuality, abortion and euthanasia affects individuals' likelihood to trust others. We hypothesize that moral issues have a natural tendency to divide societies' opinions into opposing poles and, thus, to challenge social cohesion in modern civil societies. Based on hierarchical analyses of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) - comprising a sample of 39 countries - our results reveal that individuals living in countries characterized by more opinion polarization tend to have less trust in other people.
AB - Since Puntam's seminal work on declining levels of social capital, the question of how social trust is formed has reached unprecedented heights of critical enquiry. While most of the current research concentrates on ethnic diversity and income inequality as the main influences driving down generalized trust, we focus on opinion polarization as another potential impact factor on trust. In more detail, we investigate the extent to which polarization over morally charged issues such as homsexuality, abortion and euthanasia affects individuals' likelihood to trust others. We hypothesize that moral issues have a natural tendency to divide societies' opinions into opposing poles and, thus, to challenge social cohesion in modern civil societies. Based on hierarchical analyses of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) - comprising a sample of 39 countries - our results reveal that individuals living in countries characterized by more opinion polarization tend to have less trust in other people.
KW - Moral politics
KW - Opinion polarization
KW - Social trust
KW - World Values Survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84959872457&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.02.008
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.02.008
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84959872457
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 58
SP - 34
EP - 45
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
ER -
