Mark Dolliver's Takes: Social Trust

Don’t feel badly the next time you see a report that says people distrust advertising. It turns out that lots of them distrust each other, too—though perhaps not as many as you’d guess. A survey by the Pew Research Center documents the degree to which Americans (and specific segments of the population) have or lack “social trust.”

One of the poll’s questions asked, “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?” While 45 percent said most people are trustworthy, 50 percent said you can’t be too careful.