The Structure of Trust in Four East Asian Societies

Using the Global Trust Inventory (GTI), which is a global measure of trust towards 21 relationships and institutions, two different structures of trust were identified across 4 East Asian societies (China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). Compared to the Western model in which institutional power is distributed to 7 factors representing different branches of society, the China model has a more top-down structure, in which trust is hierarchically separated between central government institutions and lower-level implementing bodies. However, the other 3 democratic East Asian societies shared a hybrid structure of trust (the East Asian model) that has a degree of similarity to both the China model and the Western model. Despite of the culture- and power-contingence of the overall structure of trust, we also found universality in trust in close relationships. Four trust profiles emerged through latent profile analysis, where China in general had a higher proportion of high trust people than other East Asian societies.