College Education and Social Trust: An Evidence-Based Study on the Causal Mechanisms

Autor/inn/en	Huang, Jian; van den Brink, Henriette Maassen; Groot, Wim
Titel	College Education and Social Trust: An Evidence-Based Study on the Causal Mechanisms
Quelle	In: Social Indicators Research, 104 (2011) 2, S.287-310 (24 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0303-8300
DOI	10.1007/s11205-010-9744-y
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; Educational Attainment; Individual Differences; Trust (Psychology); Social Capital; Attribution Theory; Social Structure + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Individueller Unterschied; Sozialkapital; Sozialstruktur
Abstract	This paper examines the influence of college education on social trust at the individual level. Based on the literature of trust and social trust, we hypothesize that life experience/development since adulthood and perceptions of cultural/social structures are two primary channels in the causal linkage between college education and social trust. In the first part of the empirical study econometric techniques are employed to tackle the omitted-variable problem and substantial evidence is found to confirm the positive effect of college education. In the second part contemporary information is used to examine the hypothetical mechanisms in the causal inference. That life experience is a primary channel via which college education promotes social trust fails to find support in our examination, while individual perceptions of cultural and social structures explain up to 77% of the causal effect. (Contains 3 figures, 8 tables, and 11 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10