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39
DOI: 10.12731/2218-7405-2013-8-19
THE LEVEL OF THE CULTURE OF TRUST BY THE EXAMPLE OF TAMBOV
Shorina I.N.
The objective. The analysis of the social survey results which reveal the level the culture of trust among Tambov citizens.
Methodology. Questionnaire.
Results. As the result of the study the conclusion about: the level of institutional trust, the ratio of institutional and interpersonal trust, factors which determine the level of the culture of trust - is made. For the majority of the respondents trust is associated with the expectation of favourable behaviour in which there is a time factor. The analysis of social processes, which are taking place in Russia, shows that the state only creates the illusion of a dialogue and trust connection between the state and society, whereas, in fact, the opposite is true.
The area of application of the results. The results can be used for public management adjustment, for studying of the social institutions functioning, for the mechanisms of cooperation and dialogue between citizens and public institutions.
Keywords: trust, institutional trust, interpersonal trust, risk, social institutions.
УРОВЕНЬ КУЛЬТУРЫ ДОВЕРИЯ НА ПРИМЕРЕ Г.ТАМБОВА
Шорина И.Н.
Цель. В статье рассматриваются результаты социологического исследования, выявляющие уровень культуры доверия граждан г. Тамбова.
Результаты. В результате исследования делается вывод о состоянии уровня институционального доверия, соотношении институционального и межличностного доверия, условий от которых зависит уровень культуры доверия.
Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть применены для корректировки государственного управления, для изучения функционирования социальных институтов, для механизма сотрудничества и диалога между гражданами и социальными институтами.
Ключевые слова: доверие, институциональное доверие, межличностное доверие, риск, социальные институты.
Modern society is functioning and developing at a rather difficult time, when almost all social institutions and norms can be described in terms of anomie and uncertainty and, as the result, instability. 'Trust' is one of the key topics in the relationship with and between institutions as well as between citizens, not only within Russia, but also in relations with various countries and states.
In the context of the dissertation research, this social survey was conducted, with the help of which the level of culture of trust among Tambov citizens was identified.
1180 people aged 18 and older took part in the survey (students at Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhvin and Tambov citizens). Because of the specificity of the selected topics the analysis of institutional trust was the matter of the biggest importance.
One of the question blocks was meant to reveal psychological settings connecting with trust (Table 1).
Table 1
What concepts do you associate with trust? (In%)
Trust Faith Stability Expectation Social capital Risk Value Other Don't know
Students 30.1 22.3 28.5 3.1 4.2 3.3 14.5 1.4 1.9
Tambov citizens 30.6 19.4 19.2 2.6 5.3 2.9 10.1 0.3 2.1
Almost 30% of the people associate trust with such concepts as 'trust' and 'stability', in other words, with something predictable and foreseeable. For the 19.4% trust is associated with 'faith'; for 10.1% - with 'value'. Association with faith shows a certain lack of trust in trust as a phenomenon.
For students the aspect of trust is also associated with the concepts of "trust" (30.1%), "faith" (22.3%), "stability" (19.2%) and "value" (14.5%). Students associate trust with stability less than the rest of Tambov citizens, but - more with value.
The respondents believe: the less trust - the more risks. And almost 73% of the surveyed citizens and 54.3% of students agree with that. Remarkable that 45% of the respondents among students don't agree with that. It's possible that the younger generation, because of age, doesn't think that trust is a type of risk (Table 2).
Table 2
Less trust - more risks (in %)
Yes Rather yes Rather no No Don't know
Students 23.2 31.1 25 20 6.7
Citizens 36.8 35.7 11 7.1 9.3
Then the respondents were asked to express their level of agreement with a particular statement (Table 3.4).
Table 3
The degree of agreement with the statement (citizens' opinion) (in %)
Statement I agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree I do not agree Do not know
Trust is the expectation of favourable behaviour 26.9 24.7 12.1 17 19.2
Trust is the unconditional expectation 12.7 19.9 20.4 21 26
Trust is the focus on the future 30.2 36.3 12.6 7.7 13.2
Trust is the presence of risk 15.4 14.8 21.4 26.4 22
Trust is the lack of control 23.1 13.7 19.2 24.2 19.8
Table 4
The degree of agreement with the statement (the students' opinion) (in %)
Statement I agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree I do not agree Do not know
Trust is the expectation of favourable behaviour 26.2 31.1 15.9 17.7 9.1
Trust is the unconditional expectation 8.5 32.9 22.6 25.6 10.4
Trust is the focus on the future 29.3 40.2 15.2 6.1 9.1
Trust is the presence of risk 17.1 20.7 22.6 29.3 10.4
Trust is the lack of control 12.8 16.5 16.5 42.7 11.6
The tables show that the majority of the respondents associated trust with the expectation of favourable behaviour within the given time. The respondents do not think mainly about the trust-risk connection. However, trust doesn't mean the lack of control, which allows to us to characterize the respondents' setting in terms of trust as "trust but verify".
According to the respondents, the institutional credibility primarily depends on the economic level of the country, on the effectiveness of the legal system and existing values. Students as well as other Tambov citizens agree with this statement.
The next block of questions provides answers about the level of trust in social institutions (graph 1).
Graph 1. Can Social institutions be trusted?
Analyzing the responses of the respondents we can note that only 8.2% of citizens and 11% of the students are completely sure that social institutions can be trusted. At the same time 28% of the citizens and 37.8% of the students tend to agree. Whereas 29.1% (citizens) and 14.3% (students) tend to disagree and disagree. A very high percentage of those tested (citizens as well as students) didn't know what to answer: 20.3% vs. 22%. Such contradictory results suggest that it is impossible to say for sure whether the respondents trust social institutions or not: the trust depends on a kind of social institution.
After that the respondents were asked to give their opinion on trust in various social institutions (graph 2).
Graph 2. Do you trust the economic institutions?
Based on the answers of the respondents, it can be concluded that among the adult citizens 34.6% trust and 57.7% do not trust the economic institutions. Students are more loyal to the institutions of this type, preferring to trust them, although with some degree of uncertainty.
The institution of marriage and family is trusted by 58.2% of the citizens and 65.9% of the students.
The issue concerning trust in political institutions showed that the majority of the respondents do not trust them (Graph 3).
Graph 3. Trust in political institutions
The older generation has higher level of negative attitude towards political institutions than students.
The Institution of Education is trusted and moderately trusted by 52.7% of the citizens and 64.4% of students in total (graph 4).
Graph 4. Do you trust the institution of education?
The Institute of Law, ideally represents one of the major institutions that allow society to function effectively, and one of the main institutions, the credibility of which defines almost the whole life of citizens, and that is the basis of sustainable development (Graph 5).
Graph 5. Do you trust in the institution of law?
The analysis of responses indicated that the Russian legal system is not trusted and tends not to be trusted by 34.9% and 24.3% of the respondents, other wise about 60% in total do not trust this institution. However, among the youth this percentage is much lower.
The Institute of Religion is the institution that conveys the basic moral norms from generation to generation, providing to be a sort of 'translator/ in introducing values into a society (graph 6).
Yes Aether yes Rather no No Don't-row Citizens ■ Students
Graph 6. Do you trust the institution of religion?
The analysis of responses indicated that the institution of religion is one of the most trusted, especially among the younger generation - 70% of the students trust this type of social institution.
The attitude of the respondents towards media was further revealed (Table 5).
Table 5
Traditional media are gradually losing the trust credit, whereas people trust the
Internet more and more
Traditional media are gradually losing the trust credit - people have more trust in the
Internet (%).
I agree Tend Tend to I don't Don't know
to disagree agree
agree
Citizens 26.5 33.7 19.3 6.6 13.8
Students 31.1 36 20.1 4.9 7.9
As can be seen from the tables, the majority of the respondents prefer to trust information from the Internet, rather than from traditional media. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Internet is less controlled by the authorities, there is more diversity of opinion - all these factors allow the respondents to analyze information from the world web without 'traditional media' censoring.
The following questions aimed to identify the area of the respondents' trust. The analysis of these responses showed that the respondents prefer to have more trust in their closest surrounding, e.g. the person with whom they meet on a regular basis.
The question of trust as an associative with an animal showed that 45.6% of citizens and 47.9%, of students named 'a dog', and only 14.8% of the citizens and 14.5% of students chose 'a cat'.
For the citizens and students trust is associated with such concepts as "confidence" and "stability", that is, with something predictable and foreseeable. Also, the respondents believe that the less trust - the more risks.
The respondents are positive about the fact that the institutional credibility depends primarily on the economic level of the country's legal system and the effectiveness of existing values. Moreover it is impossible to determine the level of
trust in social institutions without specifying the type of the institution, in short, to 'identify' the overall level of institutional trust.
The most "mistrusted" of all social Institutions was the political and economic one; and, on the other hand, the most credible was the institution of the family and religion.
The question of trust in the institution of the media showed that the majority of the respondents prefer to trust information from the Internet, where there is less government control and more different opinions.
Almost half of the respondents don't think about any artificial creation of trust in any situation or event. It turns out that for this group of the respondents, trust is something natural (Graph 7).
Graph 7. Can trust be created artificially?
This indicates that, on the one hand, more people can be manipulated, and on the other - it is getting more difficult to manipulate.
When the majority of the respondents try to achieve a goal, they rely on themselves and personal connections rather than on the formal structures and organizations. This indicates that the respondents prefer to trust their closest circle of people, who they frequently interact with. Therefore they tend to ignore any formal groups or organisations.
The analysis of responses showed that the level of institutional trust among the younger generation (students) is higher than among the other citizens. Perhaps this is due to the fact that being in a higher education environment they've got the tendency to cooperate. Also people who have a fairly high income tend to trust more. It's understandable because without trust in someone or something, you will not have financial prosperity.
For the majority of the respondents trust is associated with the expectation of favourable behaviour in which there is a time factor. For the respondents trust does not mean lack of control which allows us to characterise the trust setting of the respondents as "trust but verify".
The analysis of social processes, which are taking place in Russia, shows that the state only creates the illusion of a dialogue and trust connection between the state and society, whereas, in fact, the opposite is true. This is happening because a solid society is not good for the state system, and, therefore, not needed. However, solidarity can not be without trust between all parties of the social process.
DATA ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shorina Irina Nikolaevna, post-graduate student, Department of Theoretical and Applied Sociology
Tambov State University
33, Internatcionalnaya street, Tambov, 392000, Russia Email: [email protected]
ДАННЫЕ ОБ АВТОРЕ
Шорина Ирина Николаевна, аспирант кафедры теоретической и прикладной социологии
Тамбовский государственный университет им. Г.Р. Державина
ул. Интернациональная, 33, Тамбов, Тамбовская область, 392000, Россия
Email: [email protected]
SPIN-код: 2932-9730
Рецензент:
Налетова И.В., директор института культуры и искусств, доктор философский наук, профессор кафедры теоретической и прикладной социологии Тамбовского государственного университета им. Г.Р. Державина
