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SOCIAL TRUST Toward a Cosmopolitan Society TIMOTHY C. EARLE and GEORGE T. CVETKOVICH PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Earle, Timothy C. Social trust : toward a cosmopolitan society / Timothy C. Earle and George T. Cvetkovich. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-94845-5 (alk. paper) 1. Social psychology. 2. Trust (Psychology). I. Cvetkovich, George. II. Title. HM251.EI8 1995 302--dc20 94-45265 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 1995 by Timothy C. Earle and George T. Cvetkovich All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-45265 ISBN: 0-275-94845-5 First published in 1995 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Printed in the United States of America ∞ + ⃝™ The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 As images of time were shifting and the horror of stagnation in the tomb was taking deeper root, the shore, that place of longing where the elements converge, offered the sight of the restless sea to all those who feared the miasma and sought out the foam instead. Alain Corbin, The Lure of the Sea I am seeking a knowledge that is finally adult, a balanced wisdom, a certain forgetfulness of death. It is not a bad thing to place oneself on the verge of my picture, where wildness begins, and where knowledge begins. Places of transition are always fecund. Michel Serres, Literature and the Exact Sciences Contents PREFACE PART I SOCIAL TRUST: PAST Chapter 1 Social Trust: An Introduction Chapter 2 Social Trust: Traditional Interpretations Chapter 3 Complexity and Social Trust PART II SOCIAL TRUST: PRESENT Chapter 4 Strategies for Simplicity, One, High Resource Demand, Individual Focus Chapter 5 Strategies for Simplicity, Two, High Resource Demand, Community Focus Chapter 6 Strategies for Simplicity, Three, Low Resource Demand, Individual Focus Chapter 7 Strategies for Simplicity, Four, Low Resource Demand, Community Focus PART III SOCIAL TRUST: FUTURE Chapter 8 Social Trust Based on Cultural Values Chapter 9 Narrative, Human Life, and Social Trust Chapter 10 Social Trust: Moving from a Pluralistic to a Cosmopolitan Society xi 3 21 33 45 57 69 85 105 127 143 NOTES REFERENCES INDEX 159 193 211 Preface Our friend and colleague, Jacques Lochard, suggested this classic case of social trust. A man walks along a seashore. He sees a disturbance among the grains of sand spread before him. The man is Robinson Crusoe, and he sees the form in the sand as the print of a human foot. A single print. Of a single foot. Since Crusoe had long thought of himself as the sole human inhabitant of "his" island, the print, though singular, was significant. It wasn't, he was certain, his own. And social trust enters here. Crusoe must decide if the footprint is a sign of good or a sign of evil. He must decide, in other words, if the footprint was made by someone like him--someone similar and friendly to him--or was made by someone different from and antagonistic to him. Robinson Crusoe's choice was this: he could decide that the footprint was made by a friend, or he could decide that the footprint was made by an enemy. The choice was between similarity and difference. Between trust and distrust. According to Defoe, Crusoe made the latter decision. He chose distrust. He fortified his positions, and he prepared to defend himself. Why? On the evidence available to him, a simple disturbance-perhaps a human footprint--in the sand, Crusoe could as well have decided that rescue, at lo