Social Trust can sometimes lower life satisfaction

Ruining Jin
China University of Political Science and Law
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8542-7614

October 30, 2022

When it comes to studying life satisfaction in modern societies, social trust (a.k.a. generalized trust) has been a focal topic. Studies have suggested that there exists a positive link between social trust and life satisfaction [1,2].

However, in a study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (IF 5.625; CiteScore 5.6), Bi et al. [3] suggested otherwise. The study examined the association between social support and adolescent life satisfaction among 183,918 early adolescents (with an average age of 13.56). The moderating role of national-level generalized trust in the relationship was also tested.

The employed samples representative of 42 European and North American countries and regions were retrieved from a 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study [4]. The HBSC study was a cross-national comparison study co-conducted with The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe).

Using multilevel regression analyses, Bi et al. [3] discovered that adolescents in higher-trust countries tended to have lower life satisfaction than those in lower-trust countries. The authors reasoned that adolescents in higher-trust countries might expect more social cooperation and mutual respect from others, especially those who are not obligated to help them [5]. Therefore, life satisfaction would be lower when their expectations failed to be met.


Figure: The moderating role of national-level trust in the association between perceived classmate support and adolescent life satisfaction [3] (CC BY4.0)

The relationship between social trust and life satisfaction is indeed complex. The psychological pathways could be further studied using mindsponge-based reasoning [6-7] and the BMF framework [8]. From the mindsponge standpoint, trust is considered the “gatekeeper” for expediting individuals’ decision-making process. Thus, it is beneficial to study the role of trust in the correlation between social trust and life satisfaction in specific socio-psychological conditions.

*Editorial note: This science communication article was recommended and edited by:

Minh-Hoang Nguyen
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57205713877

References

[1] Graafland J, Lous B. (2019). Income inequality, life satisfaction inequality and trust: a cross country panel analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(6), 1717-1737.

[2] Výrost J, Kentos M, Fedáková D. (2007). Value orientations as factors of social trust, political participation, and life satisfaction. Studia Psychologica, 49(4), 283.

[3] Bi S, et al. (2021). Perceived social support from different sources and adolescent life satisfaction across 42 countries/regions: The moderating role of national-level generalized trust. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(7), 1384-1409.

[4] Inchley JC, et al. (2020). Enhancing understanding of adolescent health and well-being: The health behaviour in school-aged children study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), S3-S5.

[5] Yamagishi T. (2011). Trust: The evolutionary game of mind and society. Springer Science & Business Media.

[6] Vuong QH, Napier NK. (2015). Acculturation and global mindsponge: An emerging market perspective. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 354–367.

[7] Jin R, Wang X. (2022). “Somewhere I belong?” A study on transnational identity shifts caused by “double stigmatization” among Chinese international student returnees during COVID-19 through the lens of mindsponge mechanism. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1018843.

[8] Nguyen MH, La VP, Le TT, Vuong QH. (2022). Introduction to Bayesian Mindsponge Framework analytics: An innovative method for social and psychological research. MethodsX, 9, 101808.