Trusting Personalities: The Relationship between the Big Five, Generalized Trust and Political Trust

Do personality traits cause trust? We know that trust is important on both a societal and an individual level, however, much less is known of the cause of trust. Existing literature focus on exogenous factors like well-functioning institutions, socialization and culture. Too few studies have considered the possibility that individual differences in attitudes and behavior can be caused by personality traits. I argue that personality traits drive both generalized and political trust since personality traits affect how we process information, interact with others and what activities we choose from an early age onwards. To test this, I use several representative surveys by Society, Opinion and Media Institute (SOM) on the Swedish population between the years 2013-2020. The analysis validates trust measured as as a trait or an attitude towards others with different types political trust measures. I also test the relationship between personality traits and social activities as well as institutional interactions that are important trust building exercises. Holding the context constant, this paper contributes to understanding how personality traits interact with environmental factors.