Investigating the Effect Childhood Socioeconomic Background on Interpersonal Trust: Lower Childhood Socioeconomic Status Predicts Lower Levels of Trust

Angelos Stamos*, Efthymios Altsitsiadis, Siegfried Dewitte

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Trust is the foundation for human relationships, therefore, understanding its determinants is of utmost importance. In line with recent findings we predict that one factor influencing the individual levels of trust is childhood socioeconomic background. Childhood socioeconomic background has been found to be a key determinant of various behaviors in adulthood as it directs individuals to adopt specific large clusters of behavioral traits often referred to as lifehistory strategies. In two studies, we show that childhood socioeconomic background is associated with social trust through the adoption of different life-history strategies. In the first study, we establish the link between childhood socioeconomic background and trust and we show that the relationship is mediate by the adoption of different lifehistory strategies. In the second study, we analyze the data of General Social Survey to replicate the finding in a large sample and provide some initial evidence of two potential moderators of the relationship, sense of control and resource scarcity.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume145
Pages (from-to)19-25
Number of pages7
ISSN0191-8869
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Childhood socioeconomic background
  • Trust
  • Life-history strategies
  • Social cognition

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