Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

Political scientists have accumulated a significant amount of data suggesting that over the past decades, Americans have become less trusting of each other, and that as our population’s diversity increases, our trust in our neighbors declines. Social scientists warn us that this erosion of interpersonal social trust has very negative implications for our ability to govern ourselves effectively.

In this informative discussion of Americans’ growing distrust, political scientist Sheila Suess Ke...