Generalized and Institutional Trust: Their Impacts on First- and Second-Order Environmental Cooperation

摘要

Environmental issues remain problematic, but a growing body of work shows that trust is a solution. Yet, studies offer competing arguments on what type of trust promotes cooperation, generalized versus institutional trust. Further, previous studies use a variety of measures to define environmental cooperation, including membership in environmental groups, recycling garbage, and purchasing green products. These measures are unalike but often considered as analogous. I argue that environmental measures fit within one of two frameworks: first-order cooperation or second-order cooperation. To address these discrepancies, I use 2000 and 2010 General Social Survey waves to determine how generalized trust and institutional trust differently affect first- and second-order environmental cooperation. The findings indicate that generalized trust is strongly linked to both forms of environmental cooperation, but the relationship of institutional trust on first- and second-order cooperation is inconsistent.