networks, norms and trust: the social psychology of social capital to appear in social psychology...
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Networks, Norms and Trust: The Social Psychology of Social
Capital
to appear in Social Psychology Quarterly, March 2005
Karen S. Cook
Department of Sociology
Stanford University, U.S.A.
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Why Focus on Trust?• Fukuyama (1995) and Putnam (1996) among
others examined role of trust in economic performance of societies and in maintaining the viability of democratic forms of governance
• Trust is “at the heart of social order” - (Luhman 1979) and essential to the conduct of everyday life
• Without trust - must rely on institutions, government or the military - may breed distrust
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What does social psychology have to say about trust at the micro level?
• What is the role of trust in society?
• Does it facilitate cooperation and exchange? Under what conditions?
• Must we rely on trust?
• Is it a form of social capital or a consequence of social capital?
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Trust as Relational
• Trust is grounded in ongoing relationships
• If we value maintaining a relationship we will behave in a trustworthy manner
• If we do, the other will trust us recognizing our incentive to maintain the relation
• Called the “encapsulated interest” model of trust (Hardin, 2002)
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From Norms to Networks
• Resurgence of interest in trust lies in a social fact: a major difference between life in small isolated communities and in large complex societies (Blau 2002)
• Declining significance of groups into which one is born
• Growing significance of reciprocated choices between strangers for social relations
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Norms to Networks cont.
• The types of norms that control behavior in tight knit communities not effective in far-reaching world of networked social relations
• What forms of social control work in a networked society?
• Trust and trustworthiness enter the picture
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Social Exchange - Uncertainty and Risk
• Distinguishing feature of social exchange is uncertainty - e.g. about future reciprocation
• Potential exchange sustained by expectations of future returns
• Obligations are diffuse and uncertain, carry risk (e.g. of defection or exploitation - “opportunism” - thus trustworthiness matters and ability to assess it
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Trust and Social Exchange
• Blau (2002) - “Diffuseness of obligations implies that large-scale social exchange is not likely without formal agreement unless social bonds rooted in trust have been established.”
• Empirical evidence that reciprocal exchange leads to trust: Molm et. al. (2000, 2003)
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Social and Economic Exchange
• Emerson: social exchange focuses on the relation, economic exchange on the transaction
• Types of exchange: negotiated, reciprocal (or non-negotiated), generalized
• Outside laboratory forms are mixed, more complex, dynamic
• Relational view of exchange linked to relational view of trust
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Recent work on trust and exchange
• Yamagishi et.al. 1998, Cook et. al. 2005 (on risk and the development of trust relations)
• Lawler et. al. (1996, 1998, 2000) relational cohesion and affect - derivatives of positive social exchange and basis for solidarity
• Molm et. al. (2000, 2003) -modes of exchange as determinants of relations -degree of power use, reciprocity, trust
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Economic Exchange Relations
• Move to study trust in games (typically one shot -- study of risk not relational trust)
• Earlier work on relational contracting is relevant (Macneil, Macaulay)
• Social relations as contexts for economic transactions (e.g. Granovetter in sociology)
• McMillan and Woodruff -Vietnamese “teahouses” as sites of relational trade
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Link between social exchange relations and social capital
• Relations of social exchange among networked actors are one form of social capital (separate from norms)
• Lin (2002) - social capital - defined as the diversity of resources that can be accessed through network ties
• Social capital - has one clear empirical referent in this formulation
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Lin versus Putnam
• For Putnam: Social capital is “networks, norms and trust”
• Networks that provide access to resources• Social (or communal) norms that control
behavior and impel collective action for group benefit
• Trust - factor that limits exploitation and facilitates exchange
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Conceptual and Empirical Complexity
• Putnam’s definition “kitchen sink” - problems with theory and empirical evidence, hard to specify mechanisms
• What aspect of social capital is at work?• Thus treat social capital as Lin does: as access to
resources through network ties• Exchange networks, social support networks,
affiliation networks, job search nets, etc.
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Need for a Theory of Trust
• What is the basis of social control in networks? What recourse do actors have to failed transactions or exploitation?
• Trust comes into play when there is risk
• When risk is low, familiarity is high, often communal norms work to constrain behavior - trust is “redundant”
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Empirical Study of Trust Relations
• Laboratory work - limited by time and by degree of risk involved
• Economic studies typically “one-shot”
• Exchange studies - ongoing relations, but short term, risk can be manipulated within a modest range
• Importance of field work and other studies
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Empirical Study of Trust Networks
• Real world contexts where risk of default is high, background institutions weak or non-existent (that would sanction failures)
• Eastern Europe - trust networks for goods and services arose during communist era,
• Relatively high risk, “black market”, political insurgency - “bonds of trust”
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Trust Networks cont.
• Trust networks tend to closure (under high risk and uncertainty)
• Betrayals run deep, cost is high• In this context - existence of long-standing trust
networks for exchange may subsequently have retarded the transition to a more open market economy
• Within group trust is high, out-group trust is low
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Trust Networks as Social Capital?
In Eastern Europe and Russia - trust networks provided within group social capital but served to constrain development of other networks that facilitated transactions with “strangers” - negative implications for economic development (contrast to Putnam’s claims of effects of social capital)
Has implications for reputation systems which differ in closed and open systems (Yamagishi et.al. Forthcoming)
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Trust Networks cont.
• Such networks facilitated other types of transactions: to obtain needed medical care, educational opportunities etc. (e.g. Hungary)
• Trust networks facilitated everyday modes of transaction
• Experimental evidence - commitment breeds trust under uncertainty(mutual risk taking)
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Experimental Evidence
• Cook and Emerson (1978, 1984) re: commitment• Kollock (1994) dyadic commitment and trust
under uncertainty• Lawler and Yoon (1998) commitment as result of
positive exchange• Molm et. al. (2000) trust derives from reciprocal
exchange - proof of trustworthiness etc.
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Other Evidence?
• Heimer (2001) - trust networks emerged under uncertainty and risk during period in which abortion was illegal in U.S.
• “Jane” organization - secret network of trusted women and physicians to protect those in need and provide services
• High risk network - much at stake• Example of trust network as positive social capital
(network provided access to services)
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Other examples?
• Underground railroad networks for immigrants and refugees
• Networks of relatives and close friends that provide access to resources (jobs) in a new place (uncertainty and potential risk)
• If networks become closed - ethnic enclaves may lead to negative effects
• Restricts access to resources outside enclave (e.g. Nee and Sanders 2002)
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Networks, Norms and Trust
• Networks - not norms and trust are the sources of social capital we use for various purposes
• Norms produce social control - mainly effective in close communities, monitoring and sanctioning are less problematic
• Trust leads us to take risks of cooperating with others to enter many social relations and in economic relations it fills in the “gaps” - incomplete contracts, non-binding agreements
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Other topics
• Generalized trust (quite different from theories of relational trust)
• Power and trust - how is trust established in the context of power inequalities between the parties? (physician-patient, parent-child, employer-employee)
• How is trustworthiness assessed (social cognition, reputation and social structure)
• See Cook, Hardin and Levi, Cooperation without Trust? (forthcoming, 2005) -RSF
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Conclusion
• Uncertainty and risk of loss leads to commitment among exchange partners and reliance on trustworthy partners
• This process creates trust networks - which can be mobilized for other purposes
• Such networks may become closed especially under high risk
• If so they may subsequently restrict or limit the scope of exchange and the move to open exchange systems
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Conclusion cont.
• Only under certain conditions then do trust networks serve to provide social capital to members of the network
• Under other conditions - the networks may undermine processes of social change, lead to ossification of the networks and some degree of limitation in the social capital such relations typically provide
• A new research agenda