Several factors including experience, group membership, and religious involvement can have an impact on trust. The purpose of the current research was to examine religion as a possible factor in an individual’s trust behaviors. Researchers hypothesized that (1) individuals who identified themselves as being religious would trust strangers more easily than those who did not identify with a religion, and (2) that individuals would more easily trust strangers if the strangers were presented as being religious. Seventy-two participants were presented with three vignettes and were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring general trust, religiosity, conservatism, social distance, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, a multiple regression analysis, correlations, a mixed ANOVA, a repeated measures ANOVA, and a chi-square analysis were conducted to examine the data. Findings indicate that individuals who identified themselves as being relatively more religious did not report being able to trust strangers more easily than those who were relatively less religious and that individuals reported trusting the strangers more easily if the other person was presented as being religious versus nonreligious.
","abstract_html":"<p>Several factors including experience, group membership, and religious involvement can have an impact on trust. The purpose of the current research was to examine religion as a possible factor in an individual’s trust behaviors. Researchers hypothesized that (1) individuals who identified themselves as being religious would trust strangers more easily than those who did not identify with a religion, and (2) that individuals would more easily trust strangers if the strangers were presented as being religious. Seventy-two participants were presented with three vignettes and were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring general trust, religiosity, conservatism, social distance, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, a multiple regression analysis, correlations, a mixed ANOVA, a repeated measures ANOVA, and a chi-square analysis were conducted to examine the data. Findings indicate that individuals who identified themselves as being relatively more religious did not report being able to trust strangers more easily than those who were relatively less religious and that individuals reported trusting the strangers more easily if the other person was presented as being religious versus nonreligious.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sawyer, Kaitlyn"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Thesis (open access)","degree_discipline":"Department of Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Amy Hackney","Daniel Webster"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z","subjects":["religion","trust","strangers","Psychology","Social Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1240","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Amy Hackney","Daniel Webster"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sawyer, Kaitlyn"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-04-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis (open access)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["religion","trust","strangers","Psychology","Social Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1240"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Several factors including experience, group membership, and religious involvement can have an impact on trust. The purpose of the current research was to examine religion as a possible factor in an individual’s trust behaviors. Researchers hypothesized that (1) individuals who identified themselves as being religious would trust strangers more easily than those who did not identify with a religion, and (2) that individuals would more easily trust strangers if the strangers were presented as being religious. Seventy-two participants were presented with three vignettes and were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring general trust, religiosity, conservatism, social distance, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, a multiple regression analysis, correlations, a mixed ANOVA, a repeated measures ANOVA, and a chi-square analysis were conducted to examine the data. Findings indicate that individuals who identified themselves as being relatively more religious did not report being able to trust strangers more easily than those who were relatively less religious and that individuals reported trusting the strangers more easily if the other person was presented as being religious versus nonreligious.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Religion and Interpersonal Trust: An Individual Differences Analysis"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Amy Hackney","Daniel Webster"],"dc:creator":["Sawyer, Kaitlyn"],"dc:date.available":["2015-04-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Several factors including experience, group membership, and religious involvement can have an impact on trust. The purpose of the current research was to examine religion as a possible factor in an individual’s trust behaviors. Researchers hypothesized that (1) individuals who identified themselves as being religious would trust strangers more easily than those who did not identify with a religion, and (2) that individuals would more easily trust strangers if the strangers were presented as being religious. Seventy-two participants were presented with three vignettes and were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring general trust, religiosity, conservatism, social distance, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, a multiple regression analysis, correlations, a mixed ANOVA, a repeated measures ANOVA, and a chi-square analysis were conducted to examine the data. Findings indicate that individuals who identified themselves as being relatively more religious did not report being able to trust strangers more easily than those who were relatively less religious and that individuals reported trusting the strangers more easily if the other person was presented as being religious versus nonreligious.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1240"],"dc:subject":["religion","trust","strangers","Psychology","Social Psychology"],"dc:title":["Religion and Interpersonal Trust: An Individual Differences Analysis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis (open access)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z"}