International Trust, Intercultural Contact, and Opinion of Foreign Countries

• In Event: Public Support for War, Refugees, and International Cooperation

Abstract

This article attempts to examine how international trust affects public opinion of foreign countries. Differing from the mainstream international relations theories like neorealism and neoliberalism where mistrust is assumed at the international level, I argue that international trust, a moralistic, generalized trust in other nations, plays a critical role in individual attitudes toward outgroups. Drawing upon literature from social psychology, I put forth two pathways linking trust and public attitudes. Directly, international trusters have a superordinate identity beyond ingroup-outgroup categorization, which makes them less prone to a threat perception of other nations while more inclined to interstate cooperation. Indirectly, international trust encourages intercultural contact through which ingroup members can have a better knowledge of the contacted outgroups, leading to a less prejudiced and more pro-outsider view. Based on cross-national data from the AsiaBarometer Survey, this study provides empirical evidence regarding the positive impacts of international trust on public opinion of foreign countries.

Author

• Gong Chen, Georgia State University