Is Bad Always Stronger Than Good? Culture and Negativity Biases in Generalized Trust

Baowen Liang
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Baowen Liang: Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada / Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Politics and Governance, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Generalized trust refers to individuals’ trust in members of society at large. Previous research highlights negativity bias as a central obstacle to trust development: trust is easily destroyed but difficult to build. Yet, most evidence for this bias comes from Western, individualistic contexts. This study examines whether such findings generalize to collectivist settings. Using a preregistered online experiment in China, I show that negative information about others’ untrustworthiness lowers generalized trust more than positive information raises it, which indicates a clear negativity bias in the Chinese setting. The experiment also includes a cultural priming manipulation designed to test whether making collectivistic versus individualistic considerations salient moderates this asymmetry. The preregistered analyses, however, do not reveal a statistically significant moderation effect of the priming on negativity bias. I discuss the implications of this null result and outline directions for future research on how cultural value orientations may shape negativity biases in generalized trust.

Keywords: collectivism; generalized trust; individualism; negativity bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v14:y:2026:a:11609

DOI: 10.17645/pag.11609

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