我们的目的是探讨信任从何而来, 解释为什么信任在不同社群中的分布是不均匀的 。我们依赖中国四城市的数据 ,同时把中国的情况与别国的情况进行对比 ,希望对有关信任的一般理论建设有所贡献。本文共分为四个部分 。第一部分分析信任这个概念, 并描述各类信任的基本情况。第二部分在介绍六种解释现有信任理论的基础上, 推出我们自己的理论模型。第三部分试图用中国四城市的数据对我们的假设进行检验。最后一部分是简短的结论 。

Based on a 1998 survey of urban residents in four Chinese cities, this article presents a rationalist interpretation about the determinants of social trust .It first breaks trust into four categories, namely , trust in family members, trust in friends, trust in acquaintances, and trust in strangers, the last of which is called “social trust” .After reviewing the existing theories of social trust, the second section puts forward a hypothesis that the more resources one possesses, the more likely s he trusts others .This is so because when one owns more resources, her his “disaster threshold” would be higher and s he would be less vulnerable to potential losses due to others' untrustworthiness .The final section finds empirical evidence to support this rationalist interpretation .

王绍光,刘欣

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