Generalised Trust, the Radius of Trust, and Self-Rated Health: An International Comparison

Previous research shows that generalized trust, i.e. trust in ‘most other people’, is associated with better health and longevity. Yet, recent research links generalized trust to improved health outcomes in some countries but not in others. We posit that the ‘radius of trust’ is the missing link for explaining this globally unequal pattern.

The radius of trust reflects the circle of people that respondents refer to when asked to rate the perceived trustworthiness of others. In countries with a wide radius of trust, generalized trust is linked to high trust in both in-groups and out-groups.

A narrow radius of trust is, by contrast, indicative of contexts where high levels of generalized trust coincide with low levels of out-group trust but high levels of in-group trust. We hypothesize that the wider the radius of trust, the stronger the association between generalized trust and SRH.

Drawing on a sample of cross-country survey data from 112 countries that participated in the 2004-2022 European Values/World Values Study, we use advanced multileveling techniques to disentangle individual and contextual associations between generalized trust, the radius of trust, and SRH. Our study will be the first to incorporate both area- and individual-level measures for the trust radius.

The results of our project may help practitioners and social policy makers to identify the conditions under which interventions aimed at improving social cohesion can lead to gains in health expectancy.