Generalized Trust in an English-Speaking Caribbean Nation

This paper aims to examine religiosity (or frequency of visits to church services outside of baptisms, christening, weddings, funerals or graduation) among other variables and their influence on generalized trust in an English-speaking Caribbean nation. Generalized Trust is measured based on surveyed responses to questions on interpersonal trust and organizational political trust (i.e. trust in government). The findings showed that generalized trust was very low in Jamaica (i.e. 5 out of 100 people trust each other or the government). Using data from the Centre of Leadership and Governance Survey, logistic regression was used to model generalized trust in Jamaica. Four primary variables explain 23.5% of the variance in generalized trusts. The variables are: (1) justice, (2) confidence in social and political institutions; (3) religiosity, and (4) sex. Justice is the most significant predictor of generalized trust (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.15-0.58), followed by confidence in socio-political institutions (OR = 3.17, 95% CI = 1.54-6.52), high religiosity (OR = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.10-0.89) and sex of the individual (OR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.00-3.92). Concurringly, males had a greater generalized trust than males. M ales are twice more trusting of other persons and of the government than their female counterparts. Although this study does not claim to provide all the answers on the topic, it forms the basis upon which further work on trust in Jamaica can be researched by scholars. In addition to the aforementioned issue, we now have a model that can be used to predict trust, and furtherm ore it will assist in providing an understanding of trust in the society.