Social Trust and Value Similarity: the Relationship between Social Trust and Human Values in Europe

Abstract

The purpose of the current paper is to test whether value similarity may foster social trust in society

and whether people have higher levels of social trust when they emphasise the same values that prevail

in their country. The relationship between social trust and human values was examined in a sample of

51,308 people across 29 European countries using data from the European Social Survey round 6. Results

suggest that value similarity is more important in generating individual level social trust in countries

where the overall levels of social trust are higher. There is a stronger positive relationship between value

similarity and social trust in Scandinavian countries, which have high social trust levels, while in countries

with a low level of social trust, congruity of the personal value structure with the country level

value structure tends to decrease the individuals trustfulness