Trust, Trustworthiness, Fairness 
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**Summary**

Trust, trustworthiness, and fairness were measured in the SOEP at five-year intervals since 2003, using 
five items. Three of the items can be combined into a single scale for measuring generalized trust. 

**Theoretical Background**

In sociology and political science, generalized trust describes the average expectation of 
trustworthiness in strangers (Stolle, 2002). Trust is interpreted as a measure of cooperative 
relationships among citizens that allows people to interact in a complex social environment and to 
reduce their transaction costs (Luhmann, 2000). For sociologist James Coleman, two points are 
characteristic for the concept of trust: on the one hand, trust means that the person trusting entrusts 
specific goods to another person without being able to directly control or sanction the actions of the 
other person. On the other hand, there must be a potential benefit as an incentive: the person must gain 
some advantage from having trusted another person if the latter proves to be trustworthy. In this 
conception, trust is less a personality characteristic than a specific behavior.  
Generalized trust (trust in strangers) also differs from trust in institutions and from trust in 
acquaintances. In social psychology, the concept is also important: “Interpersonal trust is defined here 
as an expectancy held by an individual or a group that the word, promise, verbal or written statement 
of another individual or group can be relied upon” (Rotter, 1967). 

**Scale Development**

The scale used to measure trust was based on the scales used in the General Social Survey (GSS) and 
in the World Values Survey (WVS), and an additional (Item 2) was added. The scale was first piloted 
in the 2002 SOEP pretest and used in 2003 in the main SOEP survey. The scale was further validated 
in the 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 SOEP pretests (through parallel surveying of the personality 
dimension “agreeableness: trust” from the NEO-PI-R and testing of sequence effects; Naef & Schupp, 
2009). Further information can be found in Dohmen et al. (2008). 

**References**

*Dohmen, T., Falk, A., Huffman, D., & Sunde, U. (2008). Representative trust and reciprocity: 
Prevalence and determinants. Economic Inquiry, 46, 81-90.*

*Naef, M., & Schupp, J. (2009). Measuring Trust: Experiments and Surveys in Contrast and 
Combination. Berlin: DIW Berlin.*

*Luhmann, N. (2000). Vertrauen: Ein Mechanismus der Reduktion sozialer Komplexität. Stuttgart: 
Lucius & Lucius.*

*Rotter, J. B. (1967). A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. Journal of Personality, 
35, 651-665.*

*Stolle, D. (2002). Trusting Strangers - Generalized trust in perspective. Österreichische Zeitschrift für 
Politikwissenschaft, 31, 397-412.*

**Items**

What is your opinion on the following three statements (Was ist Ihre Meinung zu den folgenden drei 
Aussagen): 
	
	1. On the whole, one can trust people (Im Allgemeinen kann man den Menschen vertrauen) 
	2. Nowadays one can’t depend on anyone (Heutzutage kann man sich auf niemanden mehr verlassen) 
	3. When dealing with strangers, it is better to be cautious before trusting them (Wenn man mit fremden zu tun hat, ist es besser, vorsichtig zu sein, bevor man ihnen vertraut) 

Scale: 1 (Agree completely/ Stimme voll zu) to 4 (Disagree completely/ Lehne voll ab) 

Do you believe that most people ...(Glauben Sie, dass die meisten Leute...): 

	4. Would exploit you if they had the opportunity (Sie ausnützen würden, falls sie eine Möglichkeit dazu hätten) or would try to treat you fairly (oder versuchen würde, Ihnen gegenüber fair zu sein)?

Scale: 1 (Would exploit you if they had the opportunity / Sie ausnützen würden, falls sie eine 
Möglichkeit dazu hätten) or 2 (Or would try to treat you fairly / oder versuchen würde, Ihnen 
gegenüber fair zu sein?) 

Would you say that the most of the time, people ... (Würden Sie sagen, dass die Leute die meiste 
Zeit...) 

	5. Attempt to be helpful? (versuchen, hilfsbereit zu sein?) Or only act in their own interests? (oder nur ihre eigenen Interessen verfolgen?) 

Scale: 1 (Attempt to be helpful / versuchen, hilfsbereit zu sein?) or 2 (Or only act in their own interests 
/ oder nur ihre eigenen Interessen verfolgen?) 

**Test-Retest Correlations**

The three trust items (1-3) which form a scale were included in a retest of a subsample (N = 161) in 
2005 within 30 to 49 days after the respective initial tests. Test-retest correlation of the items were (in 
scale order) .41, .42, and .28; scale scores had a test-retest correlation of .46. 

**Items and Scale Statistics**

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