Abstract
Background: Trust enables cooperation among strangers and gives institutions the legiti macy needed to coordinate collective action. Yet institutional trust and interpersonal trust are conce ptually distinct and may change in different directions during periods of economic insecurity, politic al dissatisfaction, and social transformation. Objective: This paper reconstructs the trust analysis in t he United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs report Trust in a Changing World, u sing World Values Survey (WVS) evidence to examine long-run institutional and interpersonal cha nge. Methods: The principal trend comparison uses WVS Wave 5 (2005–2009) and Wave 7 (2017– 2022). Government confidence was measured on a four-category scale and summarized as the perce ntage reporting “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence. Generalized interpersonal trust was me asured by whether respondents believed most people could be trusted. Thirty-five countries were ob served in both waves for government trust and 36 for interpersonal trust. Wider descriptive analyses used up to 97 countries and complementary regional surveys. Results: Nineteen of 35 comparable c ountries experienced lower government trust and 16 experienced higher trust. The share expressing no trust at all in government and parliament rose from just over 16% in 2005 to almost one quarter i n Wave 7. In low-income countries, average government trust fell from 58% to 50%; high-income a verages remained close to 39–40%. Regional institutional trust declined by 32% in Africa, 44% in L atin America, and 5% in Europe between 2005 and 2022. Generalized interpersonal trust was more stable, moving from 27% to 24%. Institutional and interpersonal trust changed in the same direction in some countries and diverged in others. Conclusions: The evidence does not support a single glob al “collapse of trust.” Institutional confidence has broadly weakened, especially in several lower- an d middle-income regions, while interpersonal trust is more stable but concentrated among socially c lose others. Trust change reflects perceived performance, inequality, corruption, insecurity, cohort r eplacement, and country-specific histories. Policies should improve fairness and reliable service del ivery while strengthening opportunities for cross-group cooperation, transparent participation, and a ccountable institutions.
References
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