Mentor
Dr. Jennifer Glanville
Participation year
2010
Project title

Does Community Diversity Reduce or Enhance Interpersonal Trust?

Abstract
 

This research study sought to determine whether previous findings regarding the effect of diversity on in-group and out-group trust were influenced by social desirability bias. It also sought to uncover the role of community diversity on interpretations of questions on trust, as another potential explanation for the often-reported negative relationship between community diversity and generalized trust. This research also attempted to replicate a study that reported higher trust among respondents who thought of people they knew (as opposed to strangers) when answering a trust question. Adopting an unobtrusive way of measuring racial attitudes known as a list experiment, we were unable to overcome the social desirability bias among white respondents that may be inherent in other studies on diversity and trust. White respondents in this study indicated higher trust in blacks than in other whites. The list experiment did perform as expected among black respondents however, as they revealed a propensity towards trusting other blacks more than whites. Our results did not replicate the finding that persons who consider people they know in answering questions about trust report higher trust. We also did not find a significant link between the diversity of a respondent's community and whether or not they thought of "people in general" when answering a trust question. Thus, our potential explanation for the often-reported negative relationship between community diversity and trust was not supported.

Education
Bates College