Moral Opinion Polarization and the Erosion of Trust

Since Puntam's seminal work on declining levels of social capital, the question of how social trust is formed has reached unprecedented heights of critical enquiry. While most of the current research concentrates on ethnic diversity and income inequality as the main influences driving down generalized trust, we focus on opinion polarization as another potential impact factor on trust. In more detail, we investigate the extent to which polarization over morally charged issues such as homsexuality, abortion and euthanasia affects individuals' likelihood to trust others. We hypothesize that moral issues have a natural tendency to divide societies' opinions into opposing poles and, thus, to challenge social cohesion in modern civil societies. Based on hierarchical analyses of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) — comprising a sample of 39 countries — our results reveal that individuals living in countries characterized by more opinion polarization tend to have less trust in other people.

The celebrated trial, Madeline Pollard vs. Breckinridge, the most noted breach of promise suit in the history of court records.

Trial of William Campbell Preston who was being sued by Miss Madeline Pollard for $50,000 in a breach of promise suit. Accused of promising to marry Miss Pollard and fathering a child and then failing to fulfill his promise. He was found guilty.

The Milwaukee Street Railway Company to Central Trust Company of New York : mortgage or deed of trust.

Cover title.

A breach of promise : an extravagent farce in two acts ; [Birth] : a new and original comedy in three acts ; [War] : a drama ; [The nightingale] : a new and original drama ; [Progress] : a comedy ; [Dreams, or The Lady Clara] /

A breach of promise is adapted and altered from Les amours de Cléopâtre.

A letter to the right honorable the speaker of the House of Commons; containing a narrative of the circumstances connected with the proceedings of that house against Christopher Bolton and four others for a breach of privilege,etc.

Mode of access: Internet.

The bank of faith; or, A life of trust.

Mode of access: Internet.

Speech of Mr. Doddridge, in the case of Samuel Houston, charged with a contempt and breach of the privileges of the House, by assaulting the Hon. William Stanberry...delivered in the House of Representatives, May 9, 1832.

Bound with other speeches, addresses, and reports.

Foreclosure of mortgages. Hearing before the subcommittee on insurance and banks of the Committee on the District of Columbia, United States Senate, Seventy-first Congress, second session, on S. 3489, a bill to regulate the foreclosure of mortgages and deeds of trust in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. April 19, 1930.

John J. Blaine, chairman of subcommittee.

Virtual teams and group member dissimilarity - Consequences for the development of trust

The consequences of demographic dissimilarity for group trust in work teams was examined in a virtual (computer-mediated) and a face-to-face (FTF) environment. Demographic dissimilarity (based on age, gender, country of birth, enrolled degree) was predicted to be negatively associated with group trust in the FTF environment but not in the computer-mediated environment. Participants worked in small groups on a creative task for 3 consecutive days. In the computer-mediated environment, participants worked on the task for an hour per day. In the FTF environment, participants worked on the task for 20 minutes per day. Partial support was found for the effectiveness of computer-mediated groups in reducing the negative consequences of dissimilarity. Age dissimilarity was negatively related to trust in FTF groups but not in computer-mediated groups. Birthplace dissimilarity was positively related to trust in computer-mediated groups. Implications for the successful management of virtual teams are discussed.

Transformational leadership within virtual teams: Examining the mediating influence of trust and role clarity for performance and knowledge sharing

Virtual teams differ from tradidonal, co-located teams in that they primarily communicate via informadon technolog}' such as email, video conferencing and web based coUaboradve environments rather than in a face-to-face medium. There has been a lack of empirical research into the influence that leadership has within virtual teams upon key outcomes such as performance and knowledge sharing. This paper examines antecedents of knowledge sharing and performance, namely role clarit)' and trust in a team leader. We predicted that transformadonal leadership would posidvely influence both performance and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. We also h^'pothesised that trust in a leader and role clarit)' would mediate both the associadon between transformadonal leadership and performance as well as the associadon between transformadonal leadership and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Data was collected from a public sector organisadon using virtual teams, Pardcipants responded to a self-report quesdonnaire. Supervisor radngs of performance and knowledge sharing were also obtained. In general we found support for a posidve reladonship between transformadonal leadership and performance and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Using mediated muldple regression, we found support for the mediadng role of trust in the leader and role clarit}' between transformadonal leadership and performance and knowledge sharing. Implicadons of the results are provided.