Study On The Relationship Between Social Mobility And Interpersonal Trust

Since China's reform and opening up,social transformation centering on industrialization and marketization dramatically changed the Chinese lifestyle and communication characteristics of Chinese people.Frequent and long-lasting social mobility resulted in great redistribution of the social resources and the profound change of the old pattern of interests,which not only caused the transformation of China's macro-economic and social structure,but also has brought about the micro change of Chinese values and social mentality.The double changes impacted the original social link model and the social environment of interpersonal trust,and led to the transition of interpersonal trust.To study contemporary Chinese interpersonal trust,the dramatic transformation of contemporary Chinese society and the macroscopic social background of large-scale social mobility could not be ignored.Therefore,it may be a more effective starting point to explore the generative mechanism of the contemporary Chinese social interpersonal trust and reconstruction strategy from the perspective of the social mobility.This study attempts to answer the following questions:What are the characteristics of interpersonal trust of modern Chinese society?How does social mobility work in the forming process of interpersonal trust?What mechanism does it have?Whether social mobility is helpful in the course of transformation from the trust in acquaintances to the trust in strangers?Can we find creative path to rebuild interpersonal trust through social mobility,especially trust in strangers?The data used in this research come from "Chinese General Social Survey(2005)"and�The Study of China's Social Credit System(2011)".The study firstly intends to describe the general pattern of interpersonal trust of contemporary Chinese society.Following that is the systematic investigation of mechanisms for social mobility to affect interpersonal trust,which include both direct effect and indirect effect,with the latter functions only by means of social and personal channels.Finally,the research further explores the possible path of rebuilding the social trust from the aspects of empowerment,cooperation and justice.On the basis of the research conclusion,the dissertation responds to and reflects on the existing theories,and puts forward the reconstruction strategy of interpersonal trust.The results show that:Firsts as far as the trust object is concerned,contemporary Chinese society continues to displace a pattern in which family members and acquaintances are trusted more than strangers,while the trust in people of no bloodship displacees great uncertainty;From the subject of trust,the "high-trust-in-acquaintance-and-low-trust-in-strangers mode group is still a typical representation of today's Chinese society,but with the speeding up of urbanization,industrialization and social mobility,the level of trust in strangers tend to rise;The divergence of Chinese people's interpersonal trust in acquaintance and strangers gradually are lessened,with the increase of the proportion of "complete trust group"(high-trust-in-acquaintance-and-strangers mode)and the decrease of the proportion of "partial trustee" group(high-trust-in-acquaintance-and-low-trust-in-strangers mode and low-trust-in-acquaintance-and-high-trust-in-strangers mode).The study also finds that interpersonal trust of contemporary Chinese society shows differences in area,social group and class.Second,social mobility has a significant effect on interpersonal trust,which is reflected in two aspects:on the one hand,the upward intergenerational occupational mobility and upward education mobility increased level of trust in others with the "status consistency effect";on the other hand,upward Registry mobility reduced the level of trust in others,which showed the�status contrary effect".Direct influence of subjective social mobility on interpersonal trust exhibits both effects simultaneously.In terms of the indirect effect,social mobility affect interpersonal trust through three kinds of mechanisms:"economization/moralization","fairness"and "interpersonal reciprocity".Economization plays a significant positive role in the process that social mobility(with the exception of the Registry mobility)affects the interpersonal trust,but�moralization" plays a significant negative effect(only for trust strangers).As far as "fairness" is concerned,social mobility has significant influence on people's interpersonal trust through the concept of "justice" rather than�equalness".Compared with those who did not experience mobility,those who experienced upward social mobility has a higher accreditation of�fairness",which,in turn,helps to improve their trust in strangers.As far as�interpersonal reciprocity" is concerned,social mobility has significant influences on people's interpersonal trust through�interpersonal reciprocity" rather than�interpersonal conflict",and upward social mobility significantly increased the level of social supportive behavior and reciprocity between people,which can enhance the level of trust in others.Third,judging from the reconstruction of the interpersonal trust(trust in strangers),in the situation of social mobility,economic empowerment and social justice can go beyond acquaintances trust and work as the creative path to reconstruct social trust,but psychological empowerment and cooperation is helpless for the reconstruction of social trust.Furthermore,political empowerment not only fails to promote trust in strangers,but has negative influence on the reconstruction of social trust.The study explores the influencing mechanism and reconstructing path of interpersonal trust from the perspective of social mobility.It not only helps to develop the existing theory of interpersonal trust,but also enriches the existing research results of "the influence and consequence of social mobility" by providing new empirical evidence for further investigation of the social mobility's influence on peopled social and political attitude.At the same time,the study can provides important empirical data to explore new strategies for improving interpersonal trust(especially social trust),and also provide rational academic basis for governnent and institutions to formulate relevant policies in the course of social construction.