We provide direct evidence that people with strong family ties have a lower level oftrust in strangers than people with weak family ties, and argue that this association iscausal. We also investigate the mechanisms that underlie this effect, and provideevidence that these revolve around the level of outward exposure: factors that limitexposure limit subjects’ experience as well as motivation to deal with strangers. Ourfindings are based on experimental data derived from a new design of the ‘trust game’combined with panel survey data, both drawn from a near-representative sample ofthe British population. |
