Recently in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam, policymakers have started to see generalized trust as an indicator of societal cohesion, which is taken to be endangered by participating in ethnically homogenous or bonding organizations. However, there is no study that supports this negative socialization effect. Existing surveys in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam lack either appropriate data on ethnic minorities or do not allow this question to be properly addressed. They do not contain the relevant variables or do not have a multilevel structure, since the latter requires one to sample many responses from the same organization rather than collect data that is representative of individuals. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature by juxtaposing Turkish (bonding) associations with organizations whose membership consists of different ethnic groups (bridging). I surveyed 40 non-profit organizations in Amsterdam and collected responses from around 450 participants. I subsequently describe different bonding and bridging practices within and between organizations, and demonstrate that Turkish, as compared to mixed organizations, are internally focused on their own group, but externally are more involved in bridging networks. Thus contact within Turkish organizations is confined to fellow ethnics and this allows for testing the contact hypothesis. This thesis employs a multilevel model and distinguishes individual attributes from organizational factors (ethnic composition). However, the variance in generalized trust at the organizational level is only 4%, which indicates that the context of voluntary organizations has not much influence on it. Secondly, I test an interaction effect between the mixed ethnic composition of an organization and the length of participation in years in order to test for a socialization effect (the contact hypothesis). However, this interaction effect is not statistically significant. Finally, I test for another interaction effect, namely the effect of having a close tie in a mixed organization, in order to test for a sufficient but not necessary condition of the contact hypothesis, which might turn contact into attitude change. Again, this interaction is not statistically significant. Beyond bridging and bonding, there are complementary mechanisms which might have affected generalized trust. I, therefore, extend my model to include cognitive evaluations about one’s humanitarian values, negative life experiences and socio-economic factors. Three theoretical frameworks are tested: psychological; norm driven; and social success. The findings suggest that differences in generalized trust are best explained by individual processes rather than contact between ethnically diverse groups in voluntary organizations. Optimism has the strongest effect size on generalized trust. Other key factors are educational levels, and to some extent older age as well as having been widowed or lost one’s partner due to divorce. Younger people who adhere to humanitarian values are also among the high generalized trusters. The effect of education, age and the experience of divorce or separation is also found in other Dutch representative national samples and support the consensus around social success theories in explaining generalized trust.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation explored the degree and distribution of social capital forms-social networks, volunteer associations, generalized trust, particularized trust and norms of reciprocity in rural Ethiopia. It aims to contribute to the academic understanding of social capital formation in Africa. Whereas the extent of literature focused on uncovering difference in the distribution of social capital at macro, meso and micro levels, this dissertation instead unpacks how political and economic conditions in rural Ethiopia shape the extent of the different forms of social capital at different levels.

Bibliografický záznam FEDORKOVÁ, Marta. Parent-child relationship as a factor in the genesis of trust: An analysis of intergenerational transmission of generalized trust on the case of Husák's children. Praha, 2013. 78 s. Diplomová práce (Mgr.) Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut sociologických studií. Vedoucí diplomové práce Mgr. Jiří Remr, Ph.D., MBA Abstract This thesis extends the developing research on the sources of generalized trust by analyzing how the character of the parent-child relationship influences its formation and transfer - an aspect of trust genesis not previously addressed in the Czech context. Using data from a unique survey Distinctions and Values 2008, we explore the heterogeneity in the parental influence on trust on the case of Czech 30- year-olds and their parents. We first delimit the concept of generalized trust, presenting its most relevant current conceptualizations as well as a review of the current state of knowledge on its origins and transmission. Using Bengston's model of intergenerational transmission of values as our framework, we then in the second part of the paper look into the degree of similarity between parents and their offspring in terms of their willingness to trust others, and use logistic ordinal regression to examine how it is influenced by a...

Numerous studies demonstrate the effectiveness of university-based community service programs on students' personal, social, ethical, and academic domains. These effects depend on both, the characteristics of students enrolled and the characteristics of the programs, for instance whether they are voluntary or mandatory. Our study investigates whether effects of voluntary service programs are indeed caused by the service experience or by prior self-selection. Using data from a pre-post quasi-experimental design conducted at a public university in Europe and taking students' socioeconomic background into account, our findings on self-efficacy, generalized trust, empathic concern, and attributions for poverty show that there are no participation effects. Instead, students who join in community service differ significantly from nonparticipants with regard to almost all investigated domains a priori, indicating strong self-selection. Our results underline the importance of structured group reflection, most notably with regard to attitude-related topics.

The role of trust in market exchange has been of consistent interest to marketing researchers over the past decade. Many researches in marketing have shown that customer trust in a company and its representatives can positively influence customer loyalty. However, a customer¡¦s deal with a particular product/service provider can also be influenced by the customer¡¦s trust in the broader marketplace¡Xfor example, trust in those who regulate the market and trust in the professionals who populate the marketplace. Drawing from a number of disciplines in addition to marketing, we identify three types of trust (Institutional Trust, Role Trust, Generalized Trust) in the broader marketplace that might influence trust (interpersonal trust, firm-specific trust) between two exchange partners. Using survey results collected from direct sellers of Taiwan¡¦s direct selling companies, we test competing theories about the influence of this trust. Our results show that the influence of broad-scope trust on customer loyalty is not direct, but is mediated by narrow-scope trust. Because the substitutional view implies a direct relationship between broad-scope trust and customer loyalty, this finding supports the foundational view of the relationship between broad-scope and narrow-scope trust.

The thesis deals with the inter-generational transmission of generalized trust. The generalized trust (as an optimistic attitude toward interaction with unknown people) is known as an important component of social capital and as a requirement of a functioning society. The starting point is the cultural view of the trust as the moral norm with deep historical roots, according to these theories we are learning to trust in early childhood from our parents. The motivation for the creation of the thesis is an absence of recent studies and studies from post-socialist countries on the topic of transmission of trust from parents to children. The cultural theories of generalized trust are assuming intergenerational transmission of trust largely without empirical evidence. The proving of trust socialization could provide an insight into the stability of attitude over time and space. The data from the first wave of The Czech Household Panel Survey from 2015 was used to analyse the connection between the children's generalized trust and the parents' generalized trust. The relationship between children's and parents' generalized trust was discovered. The hypothesis suggesting a stronger influence of the mother on the child's trust than the influence of the father was not confirmed. The children of...

Are individuals that trust strangers more likely to have children, and can they be expected to have more children than their lower trusting counterparts? This article assesses two perspectives that hold this as a likely outcome. One perspective has trusting individuals as more likely to hand over the care of their children to strangers, thereby reconciling work and family dilemmas for women. In the Five-Factor Model of Personality, trusting individuals increase their odds of parenthood through several paths, including better relationship quality and outward behavior. The two perspectives also suggest different macro-level conditions for the associations. The former maintains that trust is more important for fertility in high trusting countries and where women have a high share of highly educated. The latter holds that trust is more important in low trusting countries. It also suggests that men benefit more from being trusting. This article tests these two perspectives quantitatively using a sample of eight countries that participated in the Generations and Genders Survey. The method being logistic regression with a longitudinal design. The second perspective found most support from the analysis. A positive significant association between trust and the likelihood of parenthood was more clearly found among male respondents. This result suggests that researchers on fertility and personality can be recommended to include generalized trust in their statistical models.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation explored the degree and distribution of social capital forms-social networks, volunteer associations, generalized trust, particularized trust and norms of reciprocity in rural Ethiopia. It aims to contribute to the academic understanding of social capital formation in Africa. Whereas the extent of literature focused on uncovering difference in the distribution of social capital at macro, meso and micro levels, this dissertation instead unpacks how political and economic conditions in rural Ethiopia shape the extent of the different forms of social capital at different levels. Aresi and Menze are selected for the case-study based on their representation of rural Ethiopia's ecological, language, and ethnicity, historical and religious diversity. A household survey (n = 735) was conducted to uncover the distribution of social capital forms at the individual, regional and aggregate levels. Eight focus group discussions and ten key informant interviews were conducted to unpack why the different forms of social capital unfold the way they do. The qualitative interviews were also used for validating the result of the household survey by uncovering how institutional and structural factors reconstituted and redefined at the local level and translated into social capital formation. The empirical result revealed that social networks and norms of reciprocity are the most important social capital apects in the study areas. At the same time, trust relations and formal networks (volunteer organizations) are the least important aspects of social capital. However, over time, community-organization has become an alternative venue where community members relate and support each other. Thus, network-based and community-based social capital are the principal social capital forms in the study areas. This result is largely inconsistent with the previous studies that have been conducted in developed and democratic countries which have asserted generalized trust and impersonal civic organizations as the major forms of social capital, rather than localized and interpersonal forms of social capital. The fact that different forms of social capital are present in different contexts with different levels of importance shows that forms of social capital do not necessarily articulate together. Moreover, the variation in the relative importance of social capital forms shows that the production of social capital is shaped by the prevailing political and economic conditions. Thus, this dissertation makes the case that it is necessary to distinguish among the different forms of social capital both in theory and practice.

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In order to combat the potential threats of climate change, effective policy setting and implementation is crucial. A variable which has been shown to have significant explanatory power on the success of different public policy areas is social capital; a multidimensional concept encompassing social relationships and norms ability to mobilize and facilitate common goals. In the context of climate change related research, the relationship between social capital or some of its components to environmental variables typically is studied in a vacuum. This using factor analysis or SEM, at times in combination with other statistical techniques. In this study a more extensive SEM is investigated, examining the potential effect of social capital on environmental policy attitudes, with the mediating component climate change beliefs. The relationship between all three concepts were found to be significant, with the proportion of the total effect which is due to the indirect effect being 23%. This present study contributes to the literature by introducing the use of more extensive models, taking the complex relationships in the area into account to a higher degree, in order for more efficient policy making.