ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to define generalized trust by distinguishing trust from confidence and tests the validity of two single measures. It examines the radius of trust and the existence of socially desirable responses due to their universal or moralistic nature. The first part conducts comparative survey experiments of three countries—the Netherlands, France, and Japan— which show significant discrepancies in responses to two survey questions on generalized trust: the most-people question and the stranger question. The results show that the term ‘most people’ has different meanings or radius to respondents. The second part is concerned with socially desirable responses to the stranger question. The survey data from the US is investigated and compared with that of Japan for this research interest. Japanese respondents show a tendency to over-report, distorting descriptive and causal inferences. No systematic bias for American respondents is found. The stranger question is found to be a better measure of generalized trust.
