The Impact of Education on Generalized Trust in Russia

In this study, we have raised a key question about the role of education in generalized trust in Russia, which is characterized by a low level. This feature of Russian society is determined by many factors, one of which, according to the literature, is the level of education. However, it is unclear through what mechanisms this connection occurs. We assumed that education causes an increase in the level of economic status and social intelligence, because of which there is only an indirect effect from education to generalized trust through these two aspects. The study was conducted among residents of Moscow over 18 years of age. We were faced with the following tasks: to describe the relationship in pairs between the elements of education, the indices of generalized trust, the indices of social intelligence and economic status, as well as to describe the relationship of each index of generalized trust with education, the elements of social intelligence and economic status. A link was found between generalized trust and education, social intelligence, and between education and economic status, social intelligence. We also obtained 3 final regression models that showed that the coefficients of both the social intelligence and education level indices remain significant together, which indicates that there is not only a direct effect of education on the generalized confidence indices but also a possible indirect effect through social intelligence.