Trust/Efficacy/Prejudice Quiz

Tou Xiong 472 words

Soc 111 M, W 3:30pm

03/26/2017

Trust/Efficacy/Prejudice Quiz

 

In the article "Race and Trust" by Sandra Susan Smith discussed the idea of trust and race comes down to three types of trust. The types of trust narrows down to generalized trust, particularized trust, and strategic trust.  Generalized trust is generalized notion believed by a person that the promise or statement of another person can be count on. Particularized trust is the belief that another person "like me" in terms of race or one's own kind is more trustworthy. Lastly, Strategic trust is basically trust based on one's knowledge. The methodology used in this article was literature review. Unfortunate races besides Whites and Blacks were not obtained and analyzed throughout the study. One major finding from the article is that race, education, and socioeconomic status are the key factors determinant of trust. African Americans tend to trust less than White Americans due to history and current mistreatment and due to many African Americans growing up in poorer environment. In addition, the lack of trust is a protective mechanism used by persons in unsafe neighborhoods specifically for Blacks. Many people coming from poor and unsafe neighborhoods were socialized to enforce the idea of lack of trust as a form of securing one's resources and capital. In addition, African Americans tend to have less education obtainment than White Americans which lead to more prejudice views due to less knowledge acquired. White Americans tend to have a broader network of social capital than African American; thus, exposing White Americans more to other races; thus lowering their prejudices perception of other persons unlike themselves. Particularized trust is significant for both races.

                In the article "Re-thinking the decline in Trust: A Comparison of Black and White Americans" by Rima Wilkes argues that the decrease in generalized trust is caused by political changes, generational replacement, and period changes. The data for this research came from the General Social Survey using the following years from 1972 to 2008. The dependent variable of generalized trust was broken down to three selections as asked by the General Social Survey: trust, helpful, and fair.  Controlling variables were age, gender, education, race, marital status, and employment religious attendance and if respondent resided in the South. One main finding from the study is that the recorded trust in Whites is decreasing, while the trust recorded from Blacks is stable. The decreasing population of generational "Baby Boomers" and their optimistic views had a strong impact on the decline of trust. In addition, education has a significant impact on trust. However, when education is combined with race, they both tend to lead to a decrease in trust from respondents. Next, cohorts show a decline for Whites but a small increase for Black in terms of their trust views helpfulness.  In addition, living in the South, age, education, and race were significant in terms of trust.