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That was such an interesting read. I'm glad you touched briefly on the media in the concluding paragraph. As I was reading your post, I wondered if there was a relationship between where people who attend church get their news and if that has any impact on their willingness to trust other people. Is there data that would allow you to do that analysis because you have at least one reader who would be very keen to read it!

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I've been thinking about trust levels for a while now. Mostly in regards to deteriorating trust in what used to be societal pillars (church, government, educational systems). I wonder about the relationship with William Strauss, Neil Howe's work in the "Fourth Turning" regarding generations and their propensities. So much of the work of folx that might find themselves in the "boomer" generation was to call attention to problems within larger institutions, think Civil Rights, church scandal, etc. which may have led to lower trust in those institutions. I also wonder about how architecture plays a role? Like privacy fences, private pools, gated communities, etc. or are those an outpouring of the declining trust.

Great work as always.

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founding

Another terrific post. You pack a lot of interesting ideas in a short space. One minor note about language: when the subject is we, the object pronoun should be us, not them. I think you were trying to avoid gender language when there is no risk of it because the first person is in question.

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Thank you for your analysis. Two considerations from me. People who carry guns think they can be trusted. I heard on NPR that church attendance is on the rise (not specified as to which “church”, it could be the worshippers of the satan almighty for all I know). But the sad corollary mentioned is that clergy numbers are in a steep decline generally described as burn out - join the club.

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One thought: in my experience, attendance at Catholic Mass remains more diverse, at least in terms of political and social beliefs, not sure about socioeconomically. Leaving Catholicism is a much bigger move than going from PCUSA to PCA, for example, so it tends to be stickier and therefore preserve more of a mix of people. Catholics can shop parishes to some degree, but I still think the effect is significantly smaller than Protestants shopping churches.

So looking at trends in trust among churchgoing Catholics vs. Protestants would seem to be a good test of the theory that homogenous church communities contribute to declining trust.

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Wow, fantastic write up. I’ve been talking about this topic regarding my own experience in sales. When 6 out 10 people are predisposed to not trust you, it’s harder to sell. Therefore, start with building trust and sell later.thank you for this excellent write up.

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