Social Norms and Institutionshow people interact with each other. Not surprisingly, levels
of trust also have demonstrable effects on suicide, and also,
more surprisingly, traffic accidents.^10
Levels of trust have fallen substantially over time in
some countries (like the United States and the UK) and
risen in others (such as Denmark and Italy). This may help
to explain the fact that life- satisfaction has not risen in the
United States and UK, while it has risen in a number of con-
tinental European countries. Indeed, for the United States
it has been well argued that the main offsets to the private
benefits of economic growth include not only comparator
incomes but also a decline in the quality of human relation-
ships, as measured by increased solitude, communication
difficulties, fear, family infidelity, reduced social engage-
ment, and increased distrust.^11
In many societies there are of course institutionalized
systems of bad behavior. The most common of these is cor-
ruption. In this case an official or a business manager does
not do what the rulebook says (and what represents the
purpose of his or her organization) but rather gives favors
in return for a backhander. This hugely undermines trust
and is often experienced as a form of personal oppression. If
we omit trust in Figure 8.1 and introduce perceived corrup-
tion, it has a highly significant effect.^12 The effects of crime
are similar and were discussed in the previous chapter.
Generosity
However, good behavior consists of “do’s” as well as “don’ts.”
It is crucially important what positive things we do for each
other. We have limited evidence on this at the national level,