This review examines the relationship between a person’s social status and trust. Previous research has yielded differing results. On one hand, studies have repeatedly found positive correlations of different strengths between social status and trust; that is, persons with higher social status trust more than persons with lower social status. On the other hand, empirical evidence has also suggested a negative correlation between social status and trust; that is, persons with lower social status trust more than persons with higher social status. In addition to a systematic analysis of the various theoretical approaches and the respective study results, possible causes for these diverging empirical findings are discussed. With regard to the relationship between socioeconomic status and generalized trust, all studies reviewed show a positive correlation. Contradictory results can be found only in studies that investigated socioeconomic status and trust, measured as behavior. In addition to the different operationalizations of social status and trust, one potential cause for different results may be found in the fact that in experimental settings, the social status of the interaction partner is often known.

这篇评论研究了一个人的社会地位和信任之间的关系。先前的研究得出了不同的结果。一方面，研究反复发现社会地位与信任之间不同优势的正相关；也就是说，具有较高社会地位的人比具有较低社会地位的人更信任。另一方面，经验证据也表明，社会地位和信任之间存在负相关关系。也就是说，社会地位较低的人比社会地位较高的人更信任。除了对各种理论方法和各自的研究结果进行系统分析之外，还讨论了导致这些不同的经验发现的可能原因。关于社会经济地位与普遍信任之间的关系，所审查的所有研究均显示出正相关。只有在调查以行为衡量的社会经济地位和信任的研究中才能发现矛盾的结果。除了对社会地位和信任的不同操作之外，还可能发现导致不同结果的一个潜在原因，因为在实验环境中，互动伙伴的社会地位通常是已知的。