Local Religious Subcultures and Generalized Social Trust in the United States
Using multilevel analyses of 21,193 General Social Survey respondents nested within 256 metropolitan areas and counties, we find that individuals' willingness to trust others is strongly related to the denominational make-up of geographic areas. The percent of evangelical Protestants in the pop...
| Published in: | Journal for the scientific study of religion |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Subculture
/ Religious minority
/ Interpersonal relationship
/ Trust
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion KBQ North America ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
religious ecology
B Religious Context B Trust |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Using multilevel analyses of 21,193 General Social Survey respondents nested within 256 metropolitan areas and counties, we find that individuals' willingness to trust others is strongly related to the denominational make-up of geographic areas. The percent of evangelical Protestants in the population negatively predicts individual-level generalized trust, while percent mainline Protestant and percent Catholic positively predict trust. The effect sizes of these results are large and robust to statistical controls, and they hold even among nonmembers of the religious groups; for instance, "percent evangelical" predicts lower trust even among nonevangelicals. Black Protestant population share initially appears to predict lower trust, but the association disappears after adjusting for racial residential segregation. Following a longstanding theoretical tradition in the sociology of religion, we argue that the religious characteristics of places-not just individuals-shape local subcultures in ways that affect a broad range of behaviors, attitudes, and values such as generalized trust. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-5906 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jssr.12539 |