Are Survey Measures of Trust Correlated with Experimental Trust? Evidence from Cameroon

Abstract

In less developed countries, there is often a low correlation between survey-based measures of interpersonal trust and experimental measures. This has caused doubt about the reliability of trust measures used to explain variations in levels of socio-economic development. Using data from rural Cameroon, we explore whether the correlation between survey and experimental trust depends on social distance, and on whether the survey questions are context-specific. We find a high correlation in all cases. However, correlations with survey trustworthiness do depend on social distance.