Attitudes toward ingroups versus outgroups as unique distinctions between political trust and generalized social trust : A study of ethnically diverse youth in the Czech Republic
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Československá psychologie |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://cspsych.psu.cas.cz/result.php?id=990 |
| Keywords | ethnic minority; generalized social trust; political psychology; political trust; social capital |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Objectives: Although numerous studies have examined similarities between political trust and generalized social trust, their differences are unclear. The purpose of this study is to understand unique characteristics of these two forms of trust. Participants and setting. The sample consists of ethnically diverse youth in the Czech Republic, Czechs (n=834), Slovaks (n=82), Ukrainians (n=170), and Roma (n=206), aged from 15 to 28 years (M=21.11; SD=3.50). Participants responded to questionnaires. Hypotheses: Generalized social trust will be more uniquely related to attitudes toward outgroup benefits, whereas political trust will be more uniquely related to attitudes toward ingroup benefits. Statistical analysis and results: To examine these hypotheses, a series of regression analyses were employed. Specifically, this study revealed that regardless of ethnic groups and sociodemographic characteristics, generalized social trust (not political trust) was positively related to volunteer participation, which benefits outgroups. Political trust (not generalized social trust) was associated with political behaviors (election turnouts and following the politics in the media) which are evaluated based on ingroup benefits. This study further demonstrated that excluded ethnic minority’s (i.e., Roma in this study) political trust and majority people’s (i.e., Czechs in this study) generalized social trust were uniquely related to their attitudes towards minority groups (higher support for affirmative action and higher negative emotions towards ethnic discrimination). Study limitations: Limitations of this study are its focus on young people (not older people), the use of a sample which is not representative to the population, and dependence on self-report methods. |
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