Shayla C. Nunnally
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important to note that maybe people have higher incomes and do not necessarily have
higher levels of education.
Other variables, such as a belief in a sense of ethnic community, the number of
persons one confides in, the number of interracial personal friendships, and participation
in ethnic and civil rights organizations, also statistically covary with trust in government.
However, these statistically significant effects are minimal: these variables are significant
only at the 90 percent confidence level.
Interestingly, those who feel a sense of ethnic community are less trusting of local
government. Yet, those who participate in ethnic organizations are more trusting of local
government, counter to my hypothesis that they would be less trusting. Apparently, there
is some disjunction between those who participate in such organizations and those who
feel a sense of ethnic community in other ways. Maybe, as well, the ethnic community
variable indicates attitudes more closely related to expressions of group identity.
Possibly those with higher ethnic identities are those who are less trusting of local
government. Given the unclear way that these variables are functioning in the model, I
suggest further exploration of ethnic group ties to trust in government. Again, it seems
that racial perspectives are having an unclear effect on trust in government that should be
further explained.
At the same time, a very telling finding is that for those persons who have higher
mean scores on the interracial trust index, they are also more trusting of local
government. By the same token, those who have lower mean scores on the interracial
trust index are less trusting.
The probabilities of reporting each of the categories for trust in local government
are also telling. As Table 7 shows, African American male respondents (with the same
characteristics held constant, as in the national trust ordered probit model) have a 4
percent probability of “hardly ever” trusting in the local government to do right. There is
a 64 percent probability that this group trusts in the local government “some of the time.”
There is barely a one percent probability that these respondents trust in local government
“just about always.”
Convention