IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i2p77-d1580537.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perspectives on Trust: Toward a Historical Mapping of the Concept and Its Dimensions

Author

Listed:
  • Boštjan Vrečar

    (Department of Sociology, University of Graz, Universitätsstraße 15, 8010 Graz, Austria)

Abstract

Social trust, understood as a moral evaluation of the trustworthiness or faith in the benevolence of one’s fellow citizens, represents a value that has been the subject of intense debate and growing research attention in recent decades. Nevertheless, the conceptual roots of trust and the opposing arguments that challenge them are rarely examined. This paper takes the necessary step of examining the evolution of the concept of trust. It identifies five distinct sub-perspectives on trust, tracking some of their assumptions, conceptualizations, and dimensions: societal, civic, institutional, personality, and rational choice perspectives. It also provides a brief historical overview of theoretical perspectives and influences among a number of relevant authors. It concludes with a brief discussion of the relevance of conceptual analysis and its connections with ongoing debates on trust. The aim of the article is to address the ambiguity and provide a conceptual framework for researchers to situate their research within the extensive literature on trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Boštjan Vrečar, 2025. "Perspectives on Trust: Toward a Historical Mapping of the Concept and Its Dimensions," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:77-:d:1580537
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/2/77/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/2/77/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bargain, Olivier & Aminjonov, Ulugbek, 2020. "Trust and compliance to public health policies in times of COVID-19," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. Tarrow, Sidney, 1996. "Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(2), pages 389-397, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miquel Oliu-Barton & Bary S. R. Pradelski & Yann Algan & Michael G Baker & Agnès Binagwaho & Gregory J.Gregory Dore & Ayman El-Mohandes & Arnaud Fontanet & Andreas Peichl & Viola Priesemann & Guntram , 2022. "Elimination versus mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 in the presence of effective vaccines," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/386941, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Neeraj Kaushal & Ashley N. Muchow, 2021. "Timing of social distancing policies and COVID-19 mortality: county-level evidence from the U.S," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1445-1472, October.
    3. repec:gig:joupla:v:3:y:2011:i:1:p:29-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Francesco Sarracino & Kelsey J. O’Connor, 2023. "Neo-humanism and COVID-19: Opportunities for a socially and environmentally sustainable world," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 9-41, February.
    5. Arda Gitmez & Konstantine Sonin & Austin L. Wright, 2020. "Political Economy of Crisis Response," Working Papers 2020-68, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    6. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    7. repec:jpe:journl:1792 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Delhey, Jan & Newton, Kenneth, 2004. "Social trust: Global pattern or nordic exceptionalism?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Inequality and Social Integration SP I 2004-202, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. Brandyn F. Churchill & Laura E. Henkhaus & Emily C. Lawler, 2025. "Effect of vaccine recommendations on consumer and firm behavior," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 125-150, January.
    10. Laliotis, Ioannis & Minos, Dimitrios, 2022. "Religion, social interactions, and COVID-19 incidence in Western Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    11. Pronkina, Elizaveta & Berniell, Inés & Fawaz, Yarine & Laferrère, Anne & Mira, Pedro, 2023. "The COVID-19 curtain: Can past communist regimes explain the vaccination divide in Europe?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    12. Liana R Woskie & Jonathan Hennessy & Valeria Espinosa & Thomas C Tsai & Swapnil Vispute & Benjamin H Jacobson & Ciro Cattuto & Laetitia Gauvin & Michele Tizzoni & Alex Fabrikant & Krishna Gadepalli & , 2021. "Early social distancing policies in Europe, changes in mobility & COVID-19 case trajectories: Insights from Spring 2020," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-12, June.
    13. Yan Yu, 2022. "Analyst Earnings Forecast Optimism during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Loiacono, Luisa & Puglisi, Riccardo & Rizzo, Leonzio & Secomandi, Riccardo, 2022. "Pandemic knowledge and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from COVID-19," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 768-783.
    15. Monica Martinez-Bravo & Carlos Sanz, 2022. "The Management of the Pandemic and its Effects on Trust and Accountability," Working Papers wp2022_2207, CEMFI.
    16. Borau, Sylvie & Couprie, Hélène & Hopfensitz, Astrid, 2022. "The prosociality of married people: Evidence from a large multinational sample," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    17. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Daisy Fancourt & Christian Krekel & Sarah Swanke, 2020. "Are happier people more compliant? Global evidence from three large-scale surveys during Covid-19 lockdowns," CEP Occasional Papers 54, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Sabatini, Fabio, 2006. "The Empirics of Social Capital and Economic Development: A Critical Perspective," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 12097, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan, 2021. "My home is my castle – The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    20. Daryna Grechyna, 2024. "Elections and policies: Evidence from the Covid pandemic," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3), pages 812-831, August.
    21. John M. Barrios & Efraim Benmelech & Yael V. Hochberg & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2020. "Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 27320, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Barrios, John M. & Benmelech, Efraim & Hochberg, Yael V. & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2021. "Civic capital and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic☆," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:77-:d:1580537. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.