TRUST AND HEALTH: A CROSSNATIONAL COMPARISON

Abstract

The dissertation investigates if the health benefits of in- and out-group trust vary systematically across countries by differential sociocultural, economic, and political contexts. First, I propose that the positive association between in-group trust and health be pervasive regardless of the aforementioned contexts because of the prevalence and functionality of homophilous ties in human society. This is the proposition of the generalizability of in-group trust. Second, I postulate that the relationship between out-group trust and health hinges on those contextual conditions, some of which encourage socialization and cooperation among unknown and unfamiliar others. This is the proposition of the contextual variation of out-group trust. Mixed-effects multilevel models applied to the World Values Survey data confirm both propositions: while in-group trust is positively related to self-rated health in most countries, out-group trust shows a positive association with health particularly in the contextual conditions of economic affluence and high national-level out-group trust.