According to many studies done in recent years, the United States trustworthiness #socialtrust [ Google search ] is failing.
This article here on LinkedIn is to pull together a story about this problem so that we collectively become aware of its' consequences for not addressing this in our society. Latest Entry to the list of research and articles is posted at the end July 2018.
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Income inequality, trust homicide in 33 countries
Frank J. Elgar Nicole Aitken Published: 04 June 2010
"Abstract
Background: Theories of why income inequality correlates with violence suggest that inequality erodes social capital and trust, or inhibits investment public services and infrastructure. Past research sensed the importance of these causal paths but few have examined them using tests of statistical mediation. Methods: We explored links between income inequality and rates of homicide in 33 countries and then tested whether this association is mediated by an indicator of social capital (interpersonal trust) or by public spending on health and education. Survey data on trust were collected from 48 641 adults and matched to country data on per capita income, income inequality, public expenditures on health and education and rate of homicides. Results: Between countries, income inequality correlated with trust (r = −0.64) and homicide (r = 0.80) but not with public expenditures. Trust also correlated with homicides (r = −0.58) and partly mediated the association between income inequality and homicide, whilst public expenditures did not. Multilevel analysis showed that income inequality related to less trust after differences in per capita income and sample characteristics were taken into account. Conclusion: Results were consistent with psychosocial explanations of links between income inequality and homicide; however, the causal relationship between inequality, trust homicide remains unclear given the cross-sectional design of this study. Societies with large income differences and low levels of trust may lack the social capacity to create safe communities."
A Full Book on the subject:
Trust and Violence: An Essay on a Modern Relationship
by Jan Philipp English Translation (C) 2012
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This is one of the earliest published to the general public articles mentioning the danger signs from January 2013 appearing in Psychology Today:
Lack of Trust A Harbinger of Social Breakdown?
Arming against , trying to starve it, are danger signs.
By Louis Putterman Ph.D. Jan 05, 2013
This Article Has a YouTube Video Spoken Text Play Video
Conclusion:
"If we Americans come to trust each other so little that our only response to gun violence is to arm ourselves still more, and if we distrust our own government so much that we treat it as a beast to be starved, then we just might be on the road to becoming the kind of society that performed so poorly when facing social dilemma problems in the laboratories of Herrmann, myself, and our collaborators. If, instead, we want to repair and strengthen the kind of social fabric that permits us—among other things—to use government as a tool for our collective benefit as well as the protection of our individual rights, we had best turn our back to how to choose trustworthy leaders, be trustworthy in our own dealings, and raise trustworthy children. Only through such trustworthiness, and the commitment to work together, can we have a society of high social trust. And only through such efforts can we support trustworthy and well-functioning institutions that allow us to be productive and to enjoy a high quality of life."
Nation Divided By Fear: Studies reveal widespread lack of social trust
By David Briggs Dec 2015
This Article Has a YouTube Video Spoken Text Play Video [ Video 1 of 13 ]
Excerpt:
"By a significant margin, Americans have the warmest feelings toward whites, with a rating of 74 on the feeling thermometer scale in the study. Way down toward the bottom, below even immigrants and just slightly ahead of atheists, are Muslims, with a rating of 50 on the scale.
A nearly threefold increase in hate crimes against Muslims and mosques in the last month, one study found, is evidence that they make easy targets. Politicians who would not dare target majority groups in the same manner float proposals such as banning all Muslims from entering the country.
But it is a dangerous game.
When we get too fearful, we tend to get more emotional than logical, and you can actually create the threat that you fear,” said Chapman sociologist Christopher Bader, a lead study researcher."
In 2016, this author wrote a LinkedIn article mentioning this cause and .
@Gruwup #Community # Binding Knot of Reconciliation called Mpatapo is missing in our modern world of information technologies.
Published July 2016
By James For spoken voice narrative presentation interface, link Community Address #06 [ Approve Pop Up Window For Audio Media Player ]
"Without the Mpatapo binding knot forced into information theory, the powers of enforced unification of parties, that this Adinkra symbol represents the resolute is what is resounding missing here obvious to me and the result of that missing empowerment is the violence that is holding onto the #BlackLivesMatter and #PoliceLivesMatter conflicts that have been bubbling up to the surface. This is due to the separation of distrusts so eroded that these persons defined as actors involved having an ill mind [ mental illness ] or evil doing thought [ sane intentional harm based thoughts to actions ] we want to define for collective discussions. But conclusively immaterial is the matter of principle wisdom guidance that no matter who they are and what baseline thought of considerations they have previously or in situation disclosed they have and no matter who we are of the permanence of all of the good intentions are phony to their mindful thoughts of trusting collectives. This must be understood as a resounding presence unchangeable in their mind presence for them to continue balanced and civilized onto their sense of stated presences of intentions bearing chaos and calamity in this unbalance unresolved of its challenges to define, for some this to which they themselves cannot comprehend to the understandings of reasoning of why it a life presence setup against them lifetime obvious is this way. They are not willing to continue and cope and remain in sufferance and within the silence of struggles that no one is seeing the truth what is holding against them."
How the erosion of trust leads to murders and mass shootings [ Washington Post ]
by Randolph Roth October 6, 2017
This Article Has a YouTube Video Spoken Text Presentation: Play Video [ Video 2 of 13 ]
Excerpt:
"But while we all know from experience that shootings can lead to faltering trust, the reverse appears to be true as well. My research has found that declining trust in our institutions, our social structures and one another leads to more lethal violence, including mass murder. As abstract as these sentiments may seem, they predispose certain people to kill. In fact, they explain homicide rates better than any other factor, including unemployment, guns, drugs or a permissive justice system.
When we lose faith in our government and political leaders, when we lack a sense of kinship with others, when we feel we just can't get a fair shake, it affects the confidence with which we go about our lives. Small disagreements, indignities and disappointments that we might otherwise brush off may enrage us — generating hostile, defensive and predatory emotions — and in some cases give way to violence."
The surprising factors driving murder rates: income inequality and respect
This Article Has a YouTube Video Spoken Text Presentation: Play Video [ Video 5 of 12 ]
Excerpt:
"The recent, stunning rise in inequality in America started in 1979, with the top 1% capturing 54% of all the increase in income between that year and 2007. While the Great Recession briefly paused the trend, between 2009 and 2013, the 1% took 85% of income growth and the situation has only worsened since. During that time, however, homicide rates showed nearly the opposite pattern: they rose through the 1960s and 1970s, reached a peak in 1991 and fell by nearly half between that year and 2015.
The last two years, however, have seen some rises: the rate in 2016 was nearly 9% higher than in 2015 and 2017 also seems likely to show a jump. Daly says that no one knows what time lag to expect between a rise in inequality and a rise in murder – but if it does take a few decades, this could be the start of a troubling trend, not a blip."
The left’s ‘Denmark envy’
by Megan McArdle March 2018
Excerpt:
" “Social trust” is, well, what it sounds like: How much do you trust your neighbors? And in turn, how trustworthy are they? In a low-trust place such as Greece, people don’t trust their neighbors not to cheat, which in turn makes them more likely to cheat themselves, because why should you stay honest when everyone else is getting away with something? This affects everything: whether people pay their taxes, whether they take benefits they don’t really need, how easy it is to regulate companies. And social trust also works as a productivity booster, because you can do away with a lot of the cumbersome monitoring that is ubiquitous in modern societies — the supervisors who oversee low-level workers, the store clerks who keep an eye on the customers. Every worker who is not making sure that people don’t steal or shirk can be re-employed doing something that actually increases output.
The United States simply doesn’t have that level of trust. And while it would be nice to think that we could get there if companies and government simply stopped acting so suspicious, the fact is that they frequently act suspicious because, well, Americans cheat more than Danes do. (Compare, for example, the American and Danish rates of tax evasion). Moreover, the mutual suspicion that Americans feel for each other restricts the range of politically feasible policies. Even if people aren’t cheating on benefits, if there is a widespread social belief that your fellow citizens might, you will not be willing to support a generous welfare state. (This helps explain why support is highest for old-age benefits in the United States; it’s hard to fake turning 65)."
Murder rates highest in countries that lack due process
Published: July 16, 2018 • By Lisa Marshall
This Article Has a YouTube Video Spoken Text Presentation: Play Video [ Video 3 of 12 ]
“This study suggests that how the government treats people in its effort to provide security matters,” says co-author David Brown, divisional dean for social sciences. “When there is a lack of trust in the state, people tend to take matters into their own hands and there are real-world consequences.”
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The YouTube Playlist Presentation Mentioned In the Mpatapo Image of this article is:
@Gruwup Conflict Resolution System Presentation [ Autoplay Start at Video 1 of 18 ]:
Presenting the foundation of ideas to the development of a new
technology interface of an assisted conflict resolution system. In our
world, we have intractable conflicts that remain challenged to be placed
upright and resolved. These challenges go to a lack in communication
tools that focuses on unification. Counter to what one might think, our
society with the current popularity mainstream social media tool
platforms being used is becoming detached by way of these technology
tools. They are generating one more media marketing frenzy for the
profit of companies at the expense of addiction and mental health. Our
society is being hijacked by technology. The problem is described in
this link [ http://humanetech.com/problem#