World Values Survey Webinar Series 2026: Trust and Inequality of Opportunities

Join us on May 5 for the next webinar co-organized with the Research Committee 20 Comparative Sociology of the International Sociological Association. In this webinar, Antonio M. Jaime-Castillo (UNED, Spain) and Francisco Herreros Vázquez (CSIC, Spain) discuss how inequality of opportunity affects social trust. Drawing on European Social Survey data, they examine why trust is weakened when people perceive that life chances depend less on effort and more on family background, inherited advantage, or luck. The webinar will address the social foundations of trust, the distinction between inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunities, and the broader implications of unequal life chances for social cohesion.

There is a vast literature on the effect of inequality on trust, but most empirical research focuses either on case studies or on income inequality, such as the Gini index. This analysis argues that inequality of opportunities is a more appropriate measure, as it taps into the psychological foundations of trust. Using European Social Survey data, the authors distinguish between equitable income, inherited social (dis-)advantage, and individual (dis-)advantage. The findings show that personal disadvantages reduce trust and that higher inequality of opportunities at the societal level leads to lower levels of social trust.

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