Americans trust each other less than they did a few decades ago. The share of adults who said “most people can be trusted” declined from 46% in 1972 to 34% in 2018, according to the General Social Survey.
In a 2023-24 Pew Research Center poll, an identical 34% said most people can be trusted.
Who says most people can be trusted?
Social trust seems to be rooted partly in personal experience. People learn to trust others based on how they themselves have been treated. But scarring events that reduce trust – like losing a jobor experiencing discrimination – may happen to people in some groups more often than others, leading to differences in trust across society.