Local Religious Subcultures and Generalized Social Trust in the United States

Abstract

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.

Comparing the Social Attitudes of Young Adult Evangelicals in Canada and the United States: Differences in Subcultural Boundaries among Evangelical School Graduates

“…We show that mistrust of scientists and public institutions characterizes only American, not CESGs. This calls into question theories that argue that evangelicalism everywhere (because of network closure, beliefs about human nature, or tension with the world) breed mistrust (Iannaconne 1988; Marshall and Olson 2018; Putnam 2000).…”

“…First, generalized trust—toward people in general, neighbors, and strangers—is lower in higher crime areas and in areas with a higher concentration of evangelicals such as the United States (Marshall and Olson 2018; Olson and Li 2015), so we expect AESGs to mirror their fellow American public school graduates in lower generalized trust. More specifically, U.S. evangelicals are known for their suspicion of secular institutional authority (Ellison and Musick 1995; Marshall and Olson 2018) and dislike for atheists (Edgell, Gerteis, and Hartmann 2006) and science/scientists (Chan and Ecklund 2016; Evans 2013; Sherkat 2011). By contrast, CESGs will have more social trust, an indication of broader subcultural boundaries.…”

Partners, Not Providers: A Collaboration Typology for Congregations and Community

“…The participation of evangelical clergy also provides an interesting research context given somewhat conflicting findings about their collaboration. Evangelicalism results in network closure and mistrust (Marshall & Olson, 2018) and evangelical congregations are less likely to collaborate (Chaves, 2004), but evangelicals play a significant role in mobilizing nonprofit and parachurch organizations (Scheitle & McCarthy, 2018).…”

A Polluting Creed: Religion and Environmental Inequality in the United States

“…Similarly, these contextual religious effects are found for other health effects such as infant mortality rates (Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia 2011; Garcia, Bartkowski, and Xu 2017), self-rated health (Stroope and Baker 2018), and alcohol and drug use rates (Nie and Yang 2019; Nie, Yang, and Olson 2018). Other studies using national data on religious adherents and organizations have linked differences between these groups to residential segregation (Blanchard 2007), social mobility (Clark and Stroope 2018), social trust (Marshall and Olson 2018), hate crimes (Howell et al 2018), gambling (Eitle 2011), cohabitation rates (Gault-Sherman and Draper 2012), and teen birth rates (Ovadia and Moore 2010). Following this work, metropolitan areas with more conservative Protestants might be associated with more environmental degradation, while those with more Mainline Protestants or Catholics might be associated with lower levels.…”