Many studies have found that social trust plays crucial roles in economic development through their facilitation of cooperation and network connections amongst the members of a community. However, there are few studies that examine the relationship between the natural environment and social trust. In this paper, we examine empirically the hypothesis that the development of trust is based on the demand for cooperation to cope with natural weather fluctuations, which are considered as the main risks for agricultural activities. To test our hypothesis, we use data from the 2008 Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey to investigate the relationship between weather variability in the past and current trust. The result shows that individuals who are heavily threatened by negative weather fluctuation seem to have higher level of trust in neighbours and others within their close group. The evidence shows that the relationship between weather variation on social trust may be transmitted through strengthening the cooperation amongst village peasants and family ties as they cope with risk and uncertainty. There is also evidence that households with a higher proportion of agricultural income tend to trust people more.

许多研究发现，社会信任通过促进社区成员之间的合作和网络联系在经济发展中发挥着至关重要的作用。但是，很少有研究研究自然环境与社会信任之间的关系。在本文中，我们从经验上检验了以下假设：信任的发展是建立在合作需求上的，以应对自然天气的波动，这被认为是农业活动的主要风险。为了检验我们的假设，我们使用了2008年越南“获取资源家庭调查”的数据来调查过去天气变化与当前信任之间的关系。结果表明，遭受负面天气波动严重威胁的个人似乎对邻居和近邻中的其他人的信任程度更高。有证据表明，天气变化与社会信任之间的关系可以通过加强乡村农民之间的合作以及家庭成员在应对风险和不确定性时的家庭关系来传递。也有证据表明，农业收入比例较高的家庭往往更信任人民。