With increasingly divergent views and commitments, and an all-or-nothing mindset in political life, it can seem hard to sustain the level of trust in other members of our society necessary to ensure our most basic institutions work. This book features interdisciplinary perspectives on social trust. The contributors address four main topics related to social trust. The first topic is empirical and formal work on norms and institutional trust, especially the relationships between trust and human behaviour. The second topic concerns trust in particular institutions, notably the legal system, scientific community, and law enforcement. Third, the contributors address challenges posed by diversity and oppression in maintaining social trust. Finally, they discuss different forms of trust and social trust. Social Trust will be of interest to researchers in philosophy, political science, economics, law, psychology, and sociology.
Introduction
Kevin Vallier and Michael Weber
Part I: Empirical Research on Social Trust
1. Social and Legal Trust: The Case of Africa
Andreas Bergh, Christian Bjørnskov, Kevin Vallier
2. Trustworthiness is a Social Norm, but Trusting is Not
Cristina Bicchieri, Erte Xiao, Ryan Muldoon
3. Trust, Diversity and (Ir-)Rationality: How Categorisation can lead to Discrimination
Simon Scheller
Part II: Concepts of Social Trust
4. Disappointed Yet Unbetrayed: A New Three-Place Analysis of Trust
Edward Hinchman
5. Public Trust in Science, Exploring the Idiosyncrasy-Free Ideal
Marion Boulicault and S. Andrew Schroeder
6. Justified Social Distrust
Lacey Davidson and Mark Satta
Part III: The Ethics and Politics of Social Trust
7. "I Feared for My Life": Police Killings, Epistemic Injustice, and Social Distrust
Alida Liberman
8. Convention, Social Trust, and Legal Interpretation
Ira Lindsay
9. Social Trust and Mistrust of Parental Care
Amy Mullin
10. A Case for Political Epistemic Trust
Agnes Tam
Biography
Kevin Vallier is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University and the author of four edited volumes, and 40 peer-reviewed articles. His books include Liberal Politics and Public Faith (Routledge 2014), Must Politics Be War (2019), and Trust in a Polarized Age (2020).
Michael Weber is Professor of Philosophy, and Department Chair, at Bowling Green State University. He has published on a wide variety of topics in ethics and political philosophy, including rational choice theory, ethics and the emotions, and egalitarianism. He has co-edited volumes on topics in applied ethics, including Paternalism, Manipulation, The Ethics of Self-Defense, and Religious Exemptions.
