The value of distrust

We assume that a state of distrust is the mental system’s signal that the environment is not normal—things may not be as they appear. Hence, individuals sense they should be on guard. In particular, they are likely to avoid routine strategies, ones proven to be optimal and regularly used in normal environments, because these strategies are easily anticipated by whoever may be seeking to deceive them. Conversely, a state of trust is associated with a feeling of safety. The environment is as it normally is and things really are as they appear to be. Thus, individuals see no reason to refrain from doing what they routinely do. Accordingly, we hypothesize that figuring out a new situation depends on the type of environment and the actor’s state of mind: in normal environments, where routine strategies are optimal, individuals who trust should outperform those who distrust; however, in unusual environments, where non-routine strategies are optimal, individuals who distrust should outperform those who trust. This paper reports three experiments that manipulate distrust via orienting tasks that participants perform prior to attempting to predict a series of events (Experiments 1 and 2) or solve matchstick arithmetic problems (Experiment 3). Performance success depends on discovering and implementing an appropriate rule. We found that, as predicted, the manipulation of distrust sensitized participants to the existence of non-routine contingencies, that is, contingencies that were not expected.     

In Politics We Trust…or Not? Trusting and Distrusting Demonstrators Compared

This article sheds light on the debate regarding political trust and protest activity. The debate boils down to the question whether trust in politics is positively or negatively related to protest activity. We exploit a dataset encompassing data on about 9,000 demonstrators spread over seven European countries. These demonstrators' trust in their parliaments varies widely, ranging from trustworthy capable, to corrupt incapable. We examine the diverging sociodemographic profiles and motivational dynamics that turn distrusting and trusting citizens into demonstrators. We hypothesize and show that distrusting demonstrators turn their back to institutionalized politics; for them, demonstrating substitutes the party politics they distrust. For trusting demonstrators, demonstrating supplements party politics. Trusting and distrusting demonstrators also differ considerably in terms of motivation. Distrusting demonstrators are stronger motivated to demonstrate than trusting demonstrators. Moreover, while political cynicism amplifies the motivation of distrusting demonstrators, it suppresses the motivation of trusting demonstrators. We conclude that the question to be answered is not so much whether people who engage in protest activity trust or distrust their political elites, but rather who the trusting and distrusting protesters are and why they protest.     

Humble trust

I challenge the common view that trust is characteristically risky compared to distrust by drawing attention to the moral and epistemic risks of distrust. Distrust that is based in real fear yet fails to target ill will, lack of integrity, or incompetence, serves to marginalize and exclude individuals who have done nothing that would justify their marginalization or exclusion. I begin with a characterization of the suite of behaviors characteristic of trust and distrust. I then survey the epistemic and moral hazards of distrust, in particular, distrust’s propensity to bias interpretation, to perpetuate itself, to confirm itself, to dishonor, and to insult. Taking seriously these moral and epistemic hazards requires taking affirmative measures to respond to them. I elaborate one such response: “humble trust”. The practice of humble trust issues from skepticism about the warrant of one’s own felt attitudes of trust and distrust, curiosity about who might be unexpectedly responsive to trust and in which contexts, and commitment to abjure and to avoid distrust of the trustworthy. Humble trust enables individuals to trust that they will be trusted.

     

Trying to trust: Brain activity during interpersonal social attitude change

Interpersonal trust and distrust are important components of human social interaction. Although several studies have shown that brain function is associated with either trusting or distrusting others, very little is known regarding brain function during the control of social attitudes, including trust and distrust. This study was designed to investigate the neural mechanisms involved when people attempt to control their attitudes of trust or distrust toward another person. We used a novel control-of-attitudes fMRI task, which involved explicit instructions to control attitudes of interpersonal trust and distrust. Control of trust or distrust was operationally defined as changes in trustworthiness evaluations of neutral faces before and after the control-of-attitudes fMRI task. Overall, participants (n = 60) evaluated faces paired with the distrust instruction as being less trustworthy than faces paired with the trust instruction following the control-of-distrust task. Within the brain, both the control-of-trust and control-of-distrust conditions were associated with increased temporoparietal junction, precuneus (PrC), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and medial prefrontal cortex activity. Individual differences in the control of trust were associated with PrC activity, and individual differences in the control of distrust were associated with IFG activity. Together, these findings identify a brain network involved in the explicit control of distrust and trust and indicate that the PrC and IFG may serve to consolidate interpersonal social attitudes.     

Differences in Aggression,Attitudes Toward Women,and Distrust as Reflected in Popular Music Preferences

This article examines the complex relationship between dispositions, popular music preferences, and attitudes. In accordance with selective-exposure and excitation-transfer theories, it was expected that anger and self-esteem dispositions would influence popular-music preferences and attitudinal differences. Using a sample of 243 persons, we examined hypotheses and research questions seeking to link music preferences with three attitudes: aggression, attitudes toward women, and trust/distrust. Anger and self-esteem were treated as covariates. Multivariate analysis of covariance showed significant attitudinal differences among those who preferred different music genres. As compared with most other genres, heavy-metal music listeners exhibited more aggression and lesser regard for women, and rap listeners showed more aggression and distrust. Implications of these findings were discussed.     

Social status,cognitive ability,and educational attainment as predictors of liberal social attitudes and political trust

We examined the prospective associations between family socio-economic background, childhood intelligence (g) at age 11, educational and occupational attainment, and social attitudes at age 33 in a large (N = 8804), representative sample of the British population born in 1958. Structural equation Modeling identified a latent trait of ‘liberal social attitudes’ underlying attitude factors that are antiracist, socially liberal, and in support of gender equality. Another attitude factor—‘political trust’—was relatively independent from the latent attitude trait and has somewhat different pathways in relation to the other variables included in the analysis. There was a direct association between higher g at age 11 and more liberal social attitudes and political trust at age 33. For both men and women the association between g and liberal social attitudes was partly mediated via educational qualifications, and to a much lesser extent via adult occupational attainment. For women the association between g and political trust was partly mediated through both educational qualification and occupational attainment, and for men it was mediated mainly via occupational attainment. Men and women who had higher educational qualifications and higher occupational status tend to be more socially liberal and more trusting of the democratic political system. In terms of socio-economic background, people from less privileged families showed less political trust, but did not differ much in liberal social attitudes from those born into relatively more privileged circumstances. This study shows that social background, cognitive ability, education, and own social status influence perceptions of society.     

"Moralism" and the Gender Gap: Judgments of Political Ethics in Japan

This article investigates whether women are, as many claim, "moralists"—that is, moral and ethical standard-setters who seek clean politics and have strict standards for public officials. An analysis of data from the 1996 Japanese Elections and Democracy Study survey and from 18 focus groups conducted in 1996 indicates that women in Japan are not moralists. As elsewhere, there is a gender gap in Japan on "issue preference sets," with women favoring a "care" agenda, but women assign political ethics less importance than do men, even though women are more likely to see adverse effects from political corruption. Studying people's judgments of four ethics scenarios reveals minimal gender gaps; controlling for education and age, women's judgments overall are less, not more, strict than men's. Among women, age is a better predictor of moralism than education; older women are stricter than younger women on political ethics. This is attributed to gender-based differences in moral reasoning: Japanese women and men both rely heavily on a "relation-based" frame (which is situation-specific and requires extensive social information), but gender stratification patterns create information inequalities. Younger women lack social information necessary for judging political misconduct, whereas older women overcome the information deficit through life experience.     

Social role effects on gender stereotyping in Germany and Japan

Social role theory postulates that gender stereotypes are restrained for men and women observed in the same social role. Cultural differences in the valuation of communal attributes might moderate this effect. To examine this possibility, 288 participants (144 German, 144 Japanese) estimated the communal and agentic attributes of an average man or woman described in a male‐dominated role, a female‐dominated role, or without role information. We hypothesized and found that in Germany and Japan, participants perceived men as more agentic than women without role information and as similarly agentic in the same role. However, for communion, German and Japanese participants reacted differently. German participants perceived women as more communal than men without role information and in male‐dominated roles and perceived men as more communal than women in female‐dominated roles. Japanese participants perceived all targets as similarly communal, regardless of role or gender, suggesting that communion is generally expected in Japan.     

Exclusive and inclusive protest in Europe: Investigating values,support for democracy,and life conditions

Dissatisfaction with the economic situation and perceived governmental inefficacy in regard to the financial crisis has spawned a widespread feeling of political distrust across Europe. This distrust has been translated into protests against institutional authority that aims at either expanding democratic procedures or supporting xenophobic and populist measures. This research uses European Social Survey data to compare exclusive and inclusive protesters with regard to a number of personal and social values, attitudes toward democratic principles, and different life conditions and socio‐economic resources. It also considers contextual factors to investigate how different protesters' profiles are interwoven with socio‐economic conditions. The results of a multilevel latent profile analysis show that exclusive and inclusive protesters, despite sharing similar levels of political distrust, differ with regard to key values and political attitudes, and these differences are related to individual and collective living conditions. We argue that unfavourable living conditions play a non‐negligible role in increasing the probability of easy (i.e., populist) scapegoat political attitudes. Further support for this hypothesis is provided by the cross‐country analysis, which shows that higher levels of exclusive protest are present in countries that were characterized by worse living conditions before the economic crisis.     

The effects of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and social identity threat on racial minorities’ attitudes about police

This study examines the role of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and race-based social identity threat on racial minorities’ trust and cooperation with police. We hypothesize that in police interactions, racial minorities’ phenotypic racial stereotypicality may increase race-based social identity threat, which will lead to distrust and decreased participation with police. Racial minorities (Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and multi-racials) and Whites from a representative random sample of city residents were surveyed about policing attitudes. A serial multiple mediation model confirmed that racial minorities’ self-rated phenotypic racial stereotypicality indirectly affected future cooperation through social identity threat and trust. Due to the lack of negative group stereotypes in policing, the model did not hold for Whites. This study provides evidence that phenotypic stereotypicality influences racial minorities’ psychological experiences interacting with police.     

Relation of Maternal Role Concepts to Parenting, Employment Choices, and Life Satisfaction Among Japanese Women

Japanese women are often described as heavily invested in the role of mother, yet young women in contemporary Japan are increasingly likely to postpone or opt out of marriage and child rearing. To understand the psychological dynamics of parenting among Japanese women who have chosen to become mothers, we examined the relation of maternal role salience beliefs, personal maternal role commitment, and parenting self-efficacy to life satisfaction, number of children, and employment status. Survey data were obtained from 116 urban Japanese women with children in the 2nd grade. Mothers with more children expressed greater personal role commitment. Those who had sought employment were less likely to hold strong maternal role salience beliefs. Life satisfaction was predicted by having more children, feeling efficacious as a parent, and being employed. These findings suggest that even in a society characterized by strong normative expectations for women, women's life satisfaction and choices about family life and employment are related to individual beliefs, attitudes, and judgments about their role.     

Japanese Adults’ Sex Role Attitudes and Judgment Criteria Concerning Gender Equality: The Diversity of Gender Egalitarianism

This study investigated how societal conditions have influenced Japanese gender egalitarianism by analyzing sex and age group differences in attitudes towards sex roles and “gender equality judgment criteria,” the theoretical framework used to capture the diversity of gender egalitarianism. Questionnaire surveys were mailed to 1,000 randomly sampled Japanese adults in their 30s to 60s (501 valid responses). The results show that the most egalitarian sex role attitudes and greatest consideration given to gender equality judgment criteria were seen in women and in the 40s age group. This age group difference could be attributed to societal conditions during adolescence and young adulthood, including the questioning of the homemaker role during the women’s movement in Japan and the passage of laws concerning equal employment opportunities for both sexes in 1985. This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author with some amendments and revisions. A part of this article was presented at the 43rd Annual Convention of the Japanese Society for Social Psychology.     

Do Muslims in Germany Really Fail to Integrate? Muslim Integration and Trust in Public Institutions

Multivariate analysis of 2008 data from the German Social Survey (ALLBUS) provides firm evidence on the basis of one important dimension of political integration??individuals?? trust in the political system??that Muslims are integrating well into German society. The results are significant despite controls for multiple indicators of respondents?? social capital, socioeconomic status, post-material views, ideological position, partisan support for parties in power, assessment of government performance, interest in politics, and amount of television viewing. Furthermore, Muslims?? level of religiosity does not influence their level of political trust. The findings raise new questions about integration in that the significantly lower levels of political trust found among non-Muslims may negatively affect their views of government and its efforts to respond to Germany??s Muslim population. Skepticism and distrust of government by non-Muslim ethnic Germans may undermine important programs designed to bridge the actual value and cultural differences which remain the source of the ignorance that fuels prejudice and discrimination.     

Culture, Society, and the Individual: Cross-Cultural Political Psychology in Japan

Studies of political behavior and attitudes in Japan have often looked to similarities and differences between the West, most notably the U.S., and Japan. This paper details two approaches concerned with examining Japanese social and political behavior within a cross-cultural context. The first—nihonjinron—works with cultural nationalism, which argues that Japanese values are unique and thus no social theory developed in the West can be applied to Japanese society. The second approach is characterized by field studies and tries to assess Japanese social behavior by comparing it to that of Americans and Europeans. There is a great deal of knowledge on political behavior in Western countries which scholars in Japan often refer to in order to evaluate the significance of their survey results. But there is still limited information on the Japanese situation, and any attempt to construct a general theory in either cultural or cross-cultural political psychology will have to refer also to human attitudes in this non-Western industrial society.     

Women's characteristics and gender role attitudes: support for father involvement with children

Women's (N = 364) personal characteristics and gender role attitudes were examined in relation to their support for father involvement with children. The respondents completed measures of trust, attitudes toward women, hostility, self-esteem, and father involvement. Nontraditional gender role attitudes, positive ratings of their own interpersonal trust, and low hostility toward men were predictive of the respondents' support for father involvement. Participant demographics (including age, marital status, and number of children) were unrelated to their views of father involvement. Results indicate the importance of considering the characteristics and attitudes women bring to the co-parental relationship in the examination of factors influencing father involvement with children. Findings are discussed within the context of mothers' primary child-care and gatekeeping roles.     

Casual Cynics or Disillusioned Democrats? Political Alienation in Japan

This paper examines the structure of political alienation among Japanese eligible voters, using data from the first, second, fifth, and sixth waves of the seven-wave Japanese Electoral Survey II (JES II). Political alienation can be expressed as comprising two dimensions, political trust and civic-mindedness. Males and people with more years of schooling are more allegiant in general; that is, they are both more trusting and more civic-minded. Evaluations of cabinet performance and support for democratic mechanisms are strongly related to political trust and civic-mindedness. Supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are no more civic-minded than average but are more trusting politically, whereas Japan Communist Party supporters are more civic-minded but a good deal less politically trusting than average. Independents are below the overall average on both the political trust and civic-mindedness dimensions. Even though party support is unstable, Japan's political system will not lose its stability as long as LDP supporters and independents constitute the majority of Japan's electorate. The advent of a new party capable of providing an alternative to the LDP is important to the future of Japanese democracy.     

Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women: A Cross-Nation Study

An understanding of attitudes toward violence against women is vital for effective prevention strategies. In this study we examined attitudes regarding violence against women in samples of undergraduate women and men students from four countries: India, Japan, Kuwait, and the United States. Attitudes toward sexual assault and spousal physical violence differed between men and women and across the four countries. Variations in gender differences across countries indicated that, for attitudes regarding sexual assault of women in particular, sociocultural factors may be a stronger influence than gender. Findings suggest the importance of examining differences within the larger sociocultural context of political, historical, religious, and economic influences on attitudes toward gender roles and violence against women.     

Doubly Bound: The Impact of Gender and Race on the Politics of Black Women

Gender has been thought to be less salient than race among black women. Data from two national surveys of black Americans, conducted in 1984 and 1996, show that black women identify as strongly on the basis of their gender as their race, and that these gender and racial identities are mutually reinforcing. Nevertheless, among black women, their identification with their race more powerfully affected their political attitudes than did their identification on the basis of gender, except in instances where the interests of blacks directly conflict with the interests of women. These empirically based findings speak to the issue of why the attitudes of black women toward contemporary gender issues can sharply diverge from those of white women.     

The role of right-wing authoritarianism and political sophistication in shaping attitudes toward redistribution

Using data from the Austrian National Election Study (Study 1) and the American National Election Study (Study 2), this research investigated the role of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in shaping attitudes toward governmental action related to the redistribution of wealth. We show that RWA is a relevant variable in explaining attitudes toward redistribution policies, and that the association between RWA and redistribution attitudes is moderated by political sophistication. RWA was associated with opposition to redistribution policies among individuals high in political sophistication, while among individuals low in political sophistication, RWA was either associated with support for redistribution policies (Study 1) or unrelated to redistribution attitudes (Study 2). Results suggest that exposure to the political discourse in a society affects how psychological needs and motives are related to preferences regarding the redistribution of wealth through the government.     

Humanisation,democracy and trust: The democratisation of the school ethos

A democratic state is characterised by more than its particular principles and institutions; its citizens must have the democratic virtues and attitudes. One such important attitude is trust, as commentators on the current attempts to create democratic institutions in the USSR emphasise. The paper gives an account of social trust and also the important, though problematic, role that distrust plays in a democracy. Finally the paper considers how the school can instantiate social trust in its own ethos.