Title: Americans and Social Trust: Who, Where and Why | Pew Research Center
Headings: Americans and Social Trust: Who, Where and Why
Americans and Social Trust: Who, Where and Why
An International Perspective
Why Do We Trust?
Where Do We Trust?
At What Age Do We Trust?
Other Groups that Have a Distinctive Take on Trust
Group Traits that Matter Just a Little – or Not at All
About the Survey
Add Pew Research Center to your Alexa

Content: These responses have fluctuated very little during the four decades that survey research organizations have been asking this question, save for a period in the 1990s when measured levels of interpersonal trust dipped for a number of years, triggering a flurry of speculation and scholarship about the reasons for the decline. But since then, social trust has rebounded to roughly the same level it had been before the trough. 2
The new Pew survey did not probe into the psyches, values or the life experiences of respondents, so it can offer no clues about how these factors might affect a given individual’s inclination to trust other people. Rather, it provides a look at how different demographic groups responded to a battery of three questions about social trust: Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people? Some 45% of respondents said most people can be trusted. Do you think most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance, or would they try to be fair? Some 59% of respondents said most people try to be fair. Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful, or that they are mostly just looking out for themselves? Some 57% of respondents said most people try to be helpful.