Nonprofit Membership and Interpersonal Trust in Diversity

Abstract

Diverse values and unified interpersonal trust have both been stressed as prerequisites in social governance, although contradictions can arise in trying to achieve both. Using cross-national data of more than 29,000 samples from the World Value Survey and relying on the circle and layer structure of governance consensus, we investigate the extent to which the participation of nonprofits in social governance influences interpersonal trust and value diversity. Our findings show that nonprofits increase the perception of fairness in social governance and that they contribute to cultural diversity.