Abstract
How does interpersonal trust relate to trust in public institutions, people’s willingness to contribute to redistributive actions, and the strong bonds of social cohesion in society? This article presents how Brazilians’ trust in others and in various state institutions has varied since the 1990s and how the interaction between interpersonal and institutional trust affects social cohesion. Also, we examine how widespread social perceptions of institutional corruption and different levels of inequality affect the levels of interpersonal social. Using the analytical concept of social responsibility, we argue strategies centered on the design and performance of public institutions contribute to breaking the vicious circle of lack of trust and its social costs. We used descriptive statistics and regression analysis based on data extracted from the Latinobarómetro World Values Survey as well as interview data with different social classes in Brazil.
Keywords
Social trust; Institutional trust; Social inequalities; Corruption; State in Brazil
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Source: Latinobarómetro. Responses to the question: Speaking in general terms, would you say that most people are trustable, or would you rather say that one is never sufficiently cautious when dealing with others?
Source: Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), 
Source: Latinobarómetro, 2020. Percentages correspond to the total number of people who indicated ‘to trust a lot’ in responding the following question: “Please, look at this card and tell me how much trust you have in each of the groups, institutions or persons mentioned in the list. Would you say that you have much, some, little or no trust in each one of them?”
Source: Prepared by the authors, based on data from Latinobarómetro.