Is Bad Always Stronger Than Good? Culture and Negativity Biases in Generalized Trust
Baowen Liang · 2026 · Politics and Governance
WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate
The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.
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
Abstract by Baowen Liang, Politics and Governance (2026) — licensed CC BY 4.0.
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Metadata source: DOAJ · DOI 10.17645/pag.11609