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Abstract
It is commonly held that education generates higher trust in others. In this article we consider how education might affect trust in transitional China where sociopolitical risks are widespread. We adopt an instrumental variable approach utilizing China’s two educational reforms––the Compulsory Education Law (1986) and the University Enrollment Expansion (1999)––as IVs. Analyzing data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies, we show a causal negative effect of education on trust in China. We also show education and risk awareness interact to shape trust: the negative effect of risk awareness on trust is stronger among the better educated. Taken together, the findings not only contribute to a recent debate on whether modernization has an erosive impact on social cohesion in China, but they also shed light on how education might affect trust differently across sociopolitical contexts.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Rima Wilkes, Amy Hanser, Chloe Sher, Lijun Song, Yanjie Bian, Danching Ruan, Nil Polat, Lesley Wood, the editor Xiaogang Wu, as well as three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. An earlier version of this paper has been presented at the 2018 ICSA Conference held at the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China, Princeton University.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cary Wu
Cary Wu ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of Sociology at York University in Toronto, Canada. His research focusing on political sociology and population migration has appeared in journals such as PNAS, Social Forces, Urban Studies, Geoforum, International Political Science Review, and International Journal of Comparative Sociology.
Zhilei Shi
Zhilei Shi ([email protected]) is a professor in the School of Public Administration at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China. His work has been published in journals including China Review, Habitat International, Chinese Journal of Sociology, and Journal of Chinese Sociology.