Dominant Religion, Radical Right-Wing, and Social Trust: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the impact of dominant religion and radical right-wing political views on social trust, using data taken from the World Values Survey on 60 countries over the period 2010–2014. To supplement the existing literature, we consider both religion and political views at the same regression equation, and relatively recent data to reflect terrorism and anti-immigration policies in recent years. It is found that people living in Asian countries where Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Shintoism are the dominant religions trust others more than people living in Christian and Muslim countries. A plausible explanation is that Asian religions are closely related to the ethics of life regarding relations with neighbors, which may have a positive impact on trust among people. However, when classified according to the frequency of participation in prayer, it is observed that these religions may not have a distinctly discriminatory impact on social trust. The impact of radical right-wing political views on trust is negative and statistically significant, meaning that people with radical right-wing political views have a relatively lower social trust than others. The empirical results suggest that religion and political views influence trust and can be a factor in producing either harmony or division among people.

Keywords

• Religion
• Political View
• Right-Wing
• Social Trust

References

1. Alesina, A., & E. La Ferrara. (2002). Who trusts others?. Journal of Public Economics, 85: 207-234. google scholar
2. Balliet, D., J. Tybur, M. J. Wu, C. Antonellis, & A. P. M. Van Lange. (2018). Political ideology, trust, and cooperation: in-group favoritism among republicans and democrats during a US national election. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62 (4): 797-818. google scholar
3. Berggren, N., & C. Bj0rnskov. (2011. Is the importance of religion in daily life related to social trust? cross-country and cross-state comparisons. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 80 (3): 459-480. google scholar
4. Berning, C. C., & C. Ziller. (2017). Social trust and radical right-wing populist party preferences. ActaPolitica, 52: 198-217. google scholar
5. Beugelsdijk, S., & M. J. Klasing. (2016). Diversity and trust: the role of shared values. Journal of Comparative Economics, 44: 522-540. google scholar
6. Bj0rnskov, C. (2012). How does social trust affect economic growth? Southern Economic Journal, 78 (4): 13461368. Center for Systemic Peace. Retrived from: https://www.systemicpeace.org/. google scholar
7. Clobert, M., V. Saroglou, K.-K. Hwang, & W.-L. Soong. (2014). East asian religious tolerance-a myth or a reality? empirical investigations of religious prejudice in east asian societies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45 (10): 1515-1533. google scholar
8. Daniels, J. P., & M. von der Ruhr. (2010). Trust in others: does religion matter? Review of Social Economy, 68 (2): 163-186. google scholar

9. Delhey, J., & K. Newton. (2003). Who trusts? the origins of social trust in seven societies. European Societies, 5 (2): 93-137. google scholar
10. Dingemans, E., & E. Van Ingen. (2015). Does religion breed trust? a cross-national study of the effects of religious involvement, religious faith, and religious context on social trust. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 54 (4): 739-755. google scholar
11. Duckitt, J., & C. Parra. (2004). Dimensions of group identification and out-group attitudes in four ethnic groups in New Zealand. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 26 (4): 237-247. google scholar
12. Duckitt, J. (2001). A dual-process cognitive-motivational theory of ideology and prejudice, in Zanna, M. (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 33, San Diego, CA: Academic. google scholar
13. Erikson, R. S., & K. L. Tedin. (2003). American Public Opinion (6th ed.), New York, NY: Longman. google scholar
14. Grechyna, D. (2016). On the determinants of political polarization. Economics Letters 144: 10-14. google scholar
15. Koivula, A., A. Saarinen, & P. Rasane. (2017). Political party preference and social trust in four nordic countries. Comparative European Politics, 15: 1030-1051. google scholar
16. Kwon, O. Y. (2019). Social trust and economic development, the case of South Korea, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. google scholar
17. Marcel, L., M. Gijsberts, & P. Scheepers. (2002) Extreme right-wing voting in western europe,” European Journal of Political Research, 41 (3): 345-378. google scholar
18. Mudde, C. (2007). Populist radical right parties in europe, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
19. Newton, K. (2001). Trust, social capital, civil society, and democracy. International Political Science Review, 22 (2): 201-214. google scholar
20. Norris, P. (2005). Radical right: voters and parties in the electoral market. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
21. Olson, D. V. A., & M. Li. (2015). Does a nation’s religious composition affect generalized trust? the role of religious heterogeneity and the percent religious. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 54 (4): 756-773. google scholar
22. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of american community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. google scholar
23. Putnam, R., & D. E. Campbell. (2010) American grace: how religion divides and unites us, New York, NY: Simon& Schuster. google scholar
24. Rapp, C. (2016). Moral opinion polarization and the erosion of trust. Social Science Research, 58: 34-45. google scholar
25. Stankov, L. (2021). From social conservatism and authoritarian populism to militant right-wing extremism personality and individual differences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110733, Accessed on January 11, 2021. google scholar
26. Uslaner, E. M. (2002) The moral foundations of trust. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
27. Valente, R. R., & A. Okulicz-Kozaryn. Religiosity and trust: evidence from the United States. Review of Religious Research,” https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00437-8, Accessed on January 02, 2021. google scholar
28. World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/. google scholar
29. World Values Survey, Retrived from: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp. google scholar
30. You, J.-S. (2012). Social trust: fairness matters more than homogeneity. Political Psychology, 33: 701-721. google scholar