Countries where people trust more are generally more prosperous and while there are correlation v. causation issues here there’s surrounding evidence which suggests that there really is a causal link from high trust to more prosperity.
My intuition (and only my intuition, I haven’t been able to research this effectively) suggests that the causal link is in the other direction. That is, in more prosperous countries/regions there is higher trust, since fewer people (in general) need to push limits to be able to live comfortably, so there is less crime.
It’s worth noting that a standard technique to weaken a rival group is to deter or prevent its members from cooperating — sometimes by disrupting their communications; but also by inciting rivalries or jealousies (i.e. lack of trust) within the group. We see this in everything from high-school cliques, to Internet trolling, to office politics, to counterintelligence and psyops among nation-states.
Ceteris paribus, any human social group is more effective if its members cooperate toward accomplishing its goals. Therefore a rival group which wants to prevent those goals from being accomplished can do well by disrupting the group’s cooperation.
My intuition (and only my intuition, I haven’t been able to research this effectively) suggests that the causal link is in the other direction. That is, in more prosperous countries/regions there is higher trust, since fewer people (in general) need to push limits to be able to live comfortably, so there is less crime.
It’s worth noting that a standard technique to weaken a rival group is to deter or prevent its members from cooperating — sometimes by disrupting their communications; but also by inciting rivalries or jealousies (i.e. lack of trust) within the group. We see this in everything from high-school cliques, to Internet trolling, to office politics, to counterintelligence and psyops among nation-states.
Ceteris paribus, any human social group is more effective if its members cooperate toward accomplishing its goals. Therefore a rival group which wants to prevent those goals from being accomplished can do well by disrupting the group’s cooperation.