Zaufanie uogólnione a ostrożność w kontaktach z nieznajomymi: Porównanie wyników dwóch sondaży
Generalised Trust and Prudence in Dealing with Strangers: A Comparison of Two Social Surveys

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the present paper is to compare two measures of generalised trust used in two surveys carried out in Poland in 2008 on nationwide random samples, namely, the European Social Survey and the Polish General Social Survey. An important difference between the measures is that one of them (i.e., the standard trust scale) treats trust and prudence in dealing with strangers as opposite extremes of the same continuum, while the other is based on the assumption that they are separate concepts. If prudence is actually the opposite of generalised trust, both measures should give similar results. Any differences in the results given by these tools will, however, indicate that they measure different constructs. Using the data from the above-mentioned studies I show, on the basis of various examples, that (a) trust and prudence are indeed separate constructs (b) Polish respondents are more cautious than trusting when dealing with strangers, (c) the standard trust scale, which is based on the opposition of trust and prudence, may understate the actual level of generalised trust in Poland.

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