Age between 25-28, exact date I won't share to maintain a bit of privacy through obscurity. I can definitely think of a few reasons why Americans 18-29 are les

Age between 25-28, exact date I won't share to maintain a bit of privacy through obscurity. I can definitely think of a few reasons why Americans 18-29 are less trusting overall. I would pin it to a several factors. I think the people who experienced the mid 2000s recession during their formative years are less confident in government's ability to solve problems and the stability of government services. Witnessing a significant number of government agencies downsizing (read: the government laying people off), and reduced services will do that. I, and many of my friends are believe that social security will be gone or effectively gone by the time we retire (this is also probably a factor in why concern for the elder is reduced). Restricted job opportunity instills a more competitive approach to life, and higher prioritization of one's own security before others. Less concern for elders is a secondary effect of this. Part of me wonder whether this is just as shifting in the baseline expectation of trustworthiness. For example, "most of the time, people just look after themselves" is something I'd not only agree with, but I'd also question why it's being portrayed as demonstrating a lack of trust. A lot of our social mechanisms operate off the assumption that people are mostly self interested, and it works because most people are self interested. I'd not only openly say that I mostly look after myself, I'd tell other people to look after themselves first and foremost - taking care of others is a secondary goal that comes after securing your own wellbeing. Similarly, I think we don't really trust people as much because we have less need for trust. Back in the day, if you wanted to know whether or not a product was good you had a couple sources like a magazine and some acquaintances. Nowadays you have a plethora of information and you can form an effective opinion without allocating too much trust into any individual source. Personally I think that lower amounts of trust is not necessarily a bad thing. Trust allows people to collaborate without an effective means of ensuring commitment to obligations. But on the flipside the more trustworthy a society is, the easier it is to abuse that trust. There's a good reason why scammers disproportionately go after the elderly, as they're the most trusting on average. The fact that we have built technologies and institutions that can function effectively with little or no trust is a good achievement.