High-trust and low-trust societies

Institutions and mechanisms

According to researchers, low-trust societies are typically kinship-based; outcomes of low-trust societies can include difficulty in forming and maintaining corporate structures. Mechanisms and institutions that are corrupted, dysfunctional, or absent in low-trust societies include respect for private property rights, a trusted civil court system, democratic voting and acceptance of electoral outcomes, and voluntary tax payment. Research has identified a correlation between linear-active cultures (i.e. following a daily schedule with a single task at a time) with high-trust societies, and multi-active cultures (flexible schedules with many tasks at once, often in an unplanned order) with low-trust cultures.