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Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations

University of Michigan

Dhavan V. Shah

University of Wisconsin-Madison

R. Lance Holbert

University of Delaware

In recent years, research has come to recognize that nonpolitical associations have unintended but important consequences for citizens’ participation in public affairs. Scholars theorize that these associational activities—embedded within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others—encourage and facilitate participation in civic life. This study tests and broadens these theses by (1) assessing the relative impact of different types of associational activities (i.e., informal socializing, public attendance, and religious participation) and (2) examining interactive relationships between these activities and generalized interpersonal trust. Findings show that all of these associational activities significantly contribute to civic engagement. Furthermore, all three interactions between the social associations and social trust are significant, indicating that those involved in associational activities are even more likely to become civic participants when they hold trusting attitudes toward others.

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