Social integration, trust, and education in America

From Daniel Cox at the Survey Center on American Life:

College graduates live increasingly different lives than those without a college degree. They are more socially connected, civically engaged, and active in their communities than those without a degree. I find that college graduates have more extensive systems of social support and a larger number of close friends. Consequently, they feel lonely and isolated less often.

The whole piece is interesting. The message is pretty clear that American Society “works” for people who go to college in a way that it doesn’t for those who don’t. The differences in levels of social integration are striking and somewhat confusing. It’s intuitive to think that this is just financially driven; if you have more money and stability, it’s easier to make friendships and get involved in the community… but it’s also not clear that this is the root cause (at least from this work).

Some other things that stood out to me…

The relationship between litter / graffiti and trust in one’s neighbors:

Americans living in neighborhoods where trash and graffiti are common express far lower trust in their neighbors. Less than half (45 percent) of Americans who say garbage or litter are everywhere in their neighborhood say they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in their neighbors. Eight in 10 (80 percent) Americans who live in places where there is no trash or graffiti nearby say they trust their neighbors at least a fair amount. This pattern holds across community types. Feelings of trust are higher in places without trash, litter, or graffiti marring the physical environment, whether that’s a dense urban neighborhood, a suburb, or a town.

A similar dynamic exists with tap water:

Americans who trust their tap water express a stronger connection to their community and the people who live there than those who do not trust their tap water. A majority (58 percent) of Americans who say they would be very comfortable drinking water from their tap say they feel closely connected to their neighborhood—a feeling shared by only 44 percent of those who say they would be very uncomfortable drinking unfiltered tap water.

Both of these are pretty intuitive if you think about it — if a place is dirty, you probably aren’t going to feel comfortable there. If you don’t think you can trust the tap water in a place, you’re unlikely to feel really at home there.

Being involved with a place of worship seems to help with social integration, which makes sense:

Regardless of educational experience, Americans who belong to a religious congregation are much more active in community life and report stronger social connections. Overall, Americans who are members of a place of worship are much more likely than those who are not to volunteer in the community at least a few times a year (47 percent vs. 23 percent), talk to someone in their community they do not know well (64 percent vs. 54 percent), and attend a community meeting or local event (60 percent vs. 41 percent). They are also more likely than others to feel connected to their neighborhood and the people who live there (58 percent vs. 46 percent).

But so does living near stuff to do:

Simply living near a public park, library, coffee shop, or bar is strongly associated with greater community engagement, higher feelings of social trust, and connection to the community.

So to summarize:

• there’s clearly a relationship between going to college, participation within society, and trust — it’s not clear what the driver is here.

  • my best hypothesis is that the people that are naturally inclined to go out and do stuff are now being routed into college (that’s the default path and you have to work hard to get off of it) and that this accounts for most of what we’re seeing, but I can’t prove this.

• it seems like having communities that are clean and that provide quality basic services is correlated with trust

• being involved with a religious organization is correlated with participation

• living near stuff (reducing the friction of participation) is correlated with social trust